Is Donald Trump's plan to reopen Alcatraz as a prison?

US President Donald Trump has his proposal to reopen and expand his proposal, Alcatraz, the once mandatory prison island in the icy waters of San Francisco Bay.

Alcatraz – popularly known as “The Rock” – has been closed for decades and is now a historical landmark that is visited every year by millions of tourists.

The US President believes that prison could serve against the accommodation of dangerous inmates and as a symbol of law and order in the United States.

However, experts say that the renovation of the dilapidated remains of the once formable prison is “not realistic” at all.

We know the following about the plan.

Alcatraz is located on an island, about 2 km off the coast of San Francisco, was originally built as a marine defense festival, but was rebuilt as a military prison at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1934 it was officially converted to a federal prison – Alcatraz Federal Penitentiany – Housing Notorious inmates such as Gangster Al Capone, Mickey Cohen and George “Maschinenmwehr” Kelly, Kelly.

At that time, the prison was the best known in the United States and was considered inevitable due to the strong currents and cold temperatures of San Francisco Bay.

The facility was also famous for the 1979 film, the American biographical prison drama Escape from Alcatraz, which in 1962 told about 1962 prisoner with Clint Eastwood as a ring loader Frank Morris.

It was also the place of the 1996 film with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage about a former SAS captain and FBI chemist who saves hostages by Alcatraz Island.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prison, BOP, it was almost three times more expensive than other federal institutions and was closed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1963.

The island and prison are now a museum that is operated by the National Park Service. More than 1.4 million people visit every year.

“Alcatraz is a place where the past meets the present,” said Christine Lehntz, President and CEO of the Golden Gate National Park Conservancy, in a statement sent to the BBC.

“It challenges us to listen, to learn and to promote the stories that still shape our world today,” she added.

Donald Trump is not the first president to reopen the facility as a detention center.

In 1981 Alcatraz was one of 14 locations in which the Reagan government had fled to Florida in the famous “Mariel Boatlift” to Florida.

The location was finally rejected as a historical tourist location due to a completely lack of appropriate facilities and its value.

In a social post of truth on May 4, Trump first said that he had instructed his government to reopen and expand the island prison, and said that “for too long America was plagued by malignant, violent and repeated criminals”.

When Trump spoke to reporters in the White House the following day, he said that Alcatraz is “something very strong, very powerful” law and order.

“We need right and order in this country,” he said. “So we will see it. Some of the people up here will work very hard on it.”

While he said he felt the idea “interesting”, Trump also admitted that the prison is currently a “big hulk” that is “rusting and rotting”.

“Somehow it represents something that is both terrible and beautiful and strong and misery,” he said.

Tom Homan, border from Trump, also said reporters that Alcatraz could be an “option” for “significant threats to public security threats and national security threats”.

“It should be on the table,” he added.

Shortly after Trump's comments made messages worldwide, the spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, Chad Gilmartin, said in a statement that BOP “was working on” to rebuild and open Alcatraz again in order to serve as a symbol of law and order “.

However, prison experts and historians have said serious doubts as to whether the plan is feasible.

“To be honest, I initially thought it was a joke,” Hugh Hurwitz, who acted as deputy director of BOP between May 2018 and August 2019, told BBC. “It is not realistic to believe that you can repair it. You would have to tear it out and start over.”

Mr. Hurwitz referred to a number of problems with the facility, including buildings that “literally fall apart”, in which “a six foot cannot get up”.

“There are no security upgrades. No cameras. No fence,” he added. “You can't keep a prison.”

“I have two words: water and waste water,” said Jolene Babyak, an author and Alcatraz historian who lived there as a child with her father, a prison manager, there.

“In his heyday, the entire wastewater for 500 or more people was thrown into the bay,” she said. “It has to be derived nowadays. It is not realistic at all. But it captures the imagination of everyone.”

When the 1963 facility closed, BOP said that it was almost three times more expensive to operate Alcatraz than any other federal prison -which are 10 and 13 US dollars per capita cost compared to 3 and 5 US dollars for other facilities. This was partly due to the fact that food and supplies had to be sold by boat.

In today's federal prisons, the per capita costs for inmates between 120 and 164 US dollars -which means that the costs in a facility like Alcatraz could increase to over 500 USD per person, which could only hold up about 340 prisoners.

“It was stunning, damn expensive to keep a convict there,” said John Martini, a historian who spent several years as a ranger at the National Park Service on Alcatraz. “Things have not changed. But the place went downhill.”

“It is basically a shell. The concrete also has major problems. The park service has stabilized millions in structurally,” he added. “They would need water, electricity, heat and sanitary facilities. None of these functions.”

“The [Trump’s comments] are just another turn in the strange story of Alcatraz, “added Martini.