Trump's call to reopen Alcatraz as a prison could be hindered by roadblocks

In his heyday, Alcatraz Island housed more than 260 prisoners with notorious gangsters such as Al Capone, George “Machine Rifle” Kelly and James “Whitey” Bulger, served time on the Rocky outpost.

With his closure in 1963, after it was decayed, the federal prison in front of San Francisco found a new life as a popular tourist destination – one that continues to draw more than a million visitors a year as a national historical symbol.

That could change again if President Donald Trump gets in the way. Trump wrote on Sunday on social media that he instructed the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Ministry of Justice and other authorities, “rebuilt a significantly enlarged and converted Alcatraz” to “the most ruthless and violent offenders”.

Federal Corrections and historians warn that such a project is particularly “symbolic” for Trump, but every plan would be incredibly expensive and inefficient, especially if the Federal Government's mission is to reduce expenses, and prisons are burdened by lack of personnel.

“You would remove a national landmark to found a prison that is literally for the look of the optics because it does not make sense to establish something like this financially,” said Michael Esslinger, who wrote five books about Alcatraz 'history and estimates that he has visited at least 500 times.

The National Park Service manages Alcatraz.

J. Elizabeth Peace, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said in an e -mail that “the president's statement speaks for himself” and rejected it to comment on.

Before Alcatraz was closed, it was found that the renovation would take at least 4 million dollars, and that the physical island's physical island was a main reason that it cost so much that they were maintained. For example, fresh water had to be directed to the island every week.

In a press release published in 1962, BOP director James Bennett said that it was not a “economically solid politics” to invest millions of dollars in rehab alcatraz. In Atlanta, BOP cost an inmate in Alcatraz more than the triple of triple, which it cost in Atlanta.

It is unclear how much it would cost to build a new prison on Alcatraz from scratch. The newly installed director of BOP, William Marshall III, said in a statement on Monday that he had ordered an assessment of “next steps” for a reopened US prison.

“USP Alcatraz has a rich story,” said Marshall. “We look forward to restoring this mighty symbol of law, order and justice. We will actively work with our law enforcement authorities and other federal partners to reintroduce this very important mission.”

For comparison: a new federal prison that would absorb 1,400 inmates in Letcher County, Kentucky, near the border between Virginia, costs more than 500 million dollars.

Walter Pavlo, President of the advisory company Prisonology LLC, whose experts include former BOP case managers and guards, said that he could easily recognize the price for the reconstruction of a prison on Alcatraz, which exceeds that of the Kentucky facility. In addition, other costs in connection with the operation of a maximum safety device that requires state -of -the -art technology and infrastructure, especially for a property that had a long and colorful history of escape attempts.

Federal prisons are usually built in isolated and rural communities. One of the most expensive places in the country in the San Francisco Bay Area would also require competitive salaries, said Pavlo. He said these correction officers and employees had to be experienced in dealing with dangerous criminals.

In BOP, such prisoners are currently in his “Supermax” in Florence, Colorado, south of Colorado Springs.

Trump “wants a show place for top -class criminals that people can see,” said Pavlo. “And there is no higher place than Alcatraz.”

Some elected officials in California play Trump's plan to return Alcatraz to a working prison.

“Today it is a very popular national park and a large tourist attraction,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., The former spokesman for the house, to whose district the island comprises. “The president's proposal is not a serious one.”

The idea accepted shape after Trump had accepted his office for his second term of office. His son Donald Trump Jr. posted on X: “Maybe we should also reopen Alcatraz?!?!” In response to his father's announcement preparations for a facility in the US military camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, thousands of migrants have housed.

In 1981 the Reagan government also examined Alcatraz as a place where prisoners flee the Mariel Boatlift before Cuba, but the idea was rejected because the island did not have the right resources and until then a magnet for tourists.

Alcatraz's operations began in the mid -19th century, initially as a military fort for the accommodation of prisoners until the Federal Government transferred it to the Ministry of Justice. The federal prison was opened in 1934. Over the years, Alcatraz – the nickname The Rock – was the scene of dramatic refugees and a fatal siege by occupants.

His purpose was “really a way to isolate inmates from the news and society,” said Esslinger. “It was a bit like this iron curtain, in which no information was entered or finished.”

But in the end, Alcatraz was not worth maintaining. Before the prison was closed, the BOP found in 1962 that the salt air corroded the building heavily. In the meantime, the lack of a waste water system meant wastewater directly into the bay.

In 1969, the island again received national attention when a group of activists from the American indigenous people took it until 1971.

David Widner, whose uncle, convicted bank robber John and Clarence Anglin, escaped from Alcatraz in 1962, said that in view of the tradition and the public fascination of the island, “it would make sense to stay as it is.”

“But I think Trump is able to turn it around? Sure,” said Widner. “It could be renewed with the right kind of money.”