How would you like to buy a gift for someone dear from a prison gift shop? It may sound creepy, but don’t expect to find a pair of shackles or a striped outfit because you will get disappointed. Here is what you can find. A nice white fluffy teddy bear dressed with a t-shirt with the loge of the Federal Bureau of Prisons or the badge of an Alcatraz guard or prison officer. Or you can choose the t-short to have a photo with an officer of the United Stated Prison Service.

If you are looking for clothing, you have a large variety of products to choose from and you can easily play a joke to a friend. There are lots of printed t-shirts with lots of messages, like a photo with the Alcatraz island on which is written “Wish you were here”. Or another one on which it says “They’re trying to build a prison for me and you to live in”. If you are looking for a cap, you can choose one with the logo of the FBI, or with the photo of the Alcatraz prison. Or maybe you would like one with the photo of Robert Stroud well known as The Birdman of  Alcatraz.

A bag with a message printed on it can turn out to be an interesting present from a federal prison, like the ones on which says “ World’s hottest prison officer” or “ When I grow up I want to be a prison officer”. Another funny bag is one on which is printed “ 726 per 100,000 is the highest incarceration rate in the world” and you have for option to guess the answer, which is United Stated. Or maybe you would like to have a rectangular magnet with a group of prisoners dressed in stripped clothes on your fridge.

You can also find printed water bottles, calendars, buttons, mugs of different sizes, steins. You can even buy a bowl for your pet with the photo of Alcatraz, a baby bodysuit with all kind of messages or kids baseball jerseys. You can even get boxers with printed badges of Alcatraz or officer guards or posters, framed prints and framed art titles. You can also find clocks, aprons, pillows, journals, calendars, greeting and note cards.

This large variety of products surely amazes you, and these gifts are sure to make the person who gets them smile, as they are funny in their essence. The thing is they carry some federal symbols, or they remind of great prisons where many people were incarcerated, so if you get one, you should try to think just about the funny part of the gesture and the utility of the object.

Alcatraz? Island is situated in San  Francisco Bay at 2.4 km away from San Francisco,  California. It is referred to as the Rock, and it served many purposes during its history: lighthouse, a military fortification, military prison, and federal prison until 1963. After that date it became a recreation center. Today it is a site that belongs to the Golden Gate National Recreation  Center. The name of Alcatraz comes from the Spanish denomination of the Island, La Isla de los Alcatraces, “The Island of Pelicans”.

In June 1846 Alcatraz was a property of the Mexicans and had a lighthouse built on it. This year John Fremont, the leader of the Bear Flag Republic (the name settlers who revolted against Mexican rule gave California) bought the island in the name of the United States for the amount of $5000.

In 1850, after California was acquired from the Mexicans as a result of the American-Mexican war, the president of the United States decided that Alcatraz would be a military facility. Fremont expected this initiative to bring him a fortune but he received nothing from the USA.

During the Civil War, Alcatraz became a military prison especially due to the fact that it was secluded from the mainland. To that contributed the fact that military technological advancement was rendering obsolete most of the Alcatraz leverages. It continued to be a prison for the military until October 1933, when the Federal Bureau of Prisons acquired it and turned it into a federal prison.

Though it served as federal prison for a few decades only, it made quite a name for itself out of its unbreachable security level. In June 1962, however, Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarance Anglin managed to escape at the end of one of the most industrious escape plans ever conceived. It was the most famous prison break in Alcatraz history. In fact it even generated a movie.

The most notorious inmates at Alcatraz were: Al Capone, Robert Stroud (The Alcatraz Bird), George “Machine Gun” (who spent 17 years and Alcatraz and then was transferred to Leavenworth, where he died of a heart attack), James Bulger (he spent a little time here then he escaped and is still in Fugitive Most Wanted List), Alvin Karpis (who served the longest term in Alcatraz ever).

It is only natural that a place like this attracts so many tourists and has a gift shop that can offer you a T-shirt with an escape plan on it for instance which is  apparently very easy to carry out: “Dig, Dive & Run”. Or if you don’t want to get out of Alcatraz you may buy a simple T-Shirt with the image of the prison on it. There are cups with the prison image engraved on them and post cards that can be bought and constitute a very nice gift. The gift shops sell ingenious and funny cartoons representing life in Alcatraz prison.

A very interesting and most wanted type of T-shirts Alcatraz fans can buy is the “Alcatraz Psycho Ward” T-shirt. You may even find a shirt that imitates perfectly the one Alcatraz inmates were wearing. Even though Alcatraz is something children shouldn’t be told about at least until they turn 18, gift shops sell puzzle-like games that help them build brick by brick the famous prison.