Alcatraz prison invites former residents back for annual alumni event SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The National Park Service said Alumni Day at San Francisco's Alcatraz prison will feature several former officers, family members and one former prisoner. The Park Service said the annual event Aug. 11 at U.S. Penitentiary Alcatraz, which marks the anniversary of the defunct prison's opening, will feature several former residents, including correctional officers, their families and a former prison inmate. The former residents will share personal stories from the prison's past and will participate in discussions, tours and other events. Among the returning former residents is Darlyne Sheppeard, 79, who lived on the island when her father worked at the prison in the 1950s. Sheppeard said she learned how to pick padlocks as a teenager living on Alcatraz. Well, I took a bobby pin -- not a hairpin, it had to be a bobby pin. A tight bobby pin. I'd spring it, stick both ends in the lock, wiggle it around and the lock would open," she said.