Trump officials arrive in S.F., expected to push Alcatraz reopening as prison

San Francisco Chronicle​

3 days ago

Beating the usual rush of tourists, the U.S. attorney general and interior secretary traveled early Thursday to Alcatraz, where they were expected to announce a highly improbable plan to reopen the prison on the San Francisco Bay island, in what appeared to be a publicity stunt designed to portray President Donald Trump as tough on crime while antagonizing a famously liberal city.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, slammed what she said was a plan for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Attorney General Pam Bondi to announce the prison's reopening Thursday morning.
Critics have raised serious questions about the plan's practicality and legality. A former park ranger and expert on Alcatraz history previously told the Chronicle that the prison was 'totally inoperable,' with no water or sewage, and electricity only in certain areas. This month, President Donald Trump said he'd seen renderings of the potential new facility, complete with sharks patrolling the waters around the prison.
Trump first floated the idea in May, saying in a Truth Social post that he ordered federal agencies to reopen and rebuild Alcatraz more than 60 years after it closed. Officials shuttered the prison in 1963 after deeming it too expensive to maintain and operate.
After visiting Alcatraz early Thursday, Bondi and Burgum were scheduled to visit the Presidio in the afternoon, a spokesperson for Pelosi told the Chronicle. The House is currently in session, so Pelosi did not plan on attending the events, the spokesperson said.
John Martini, an expert on Alcatraz history who served as a park ranger on the island in the 1970s previously told the Chronicle that it would be impossible to reopen the cellblock because the building is 'totally inoperable,' with no water or sewage, and electricity only in certain parts.
Bondi's visit comes at a precarious moment for the attorney general. She has come under fire from large swaths of Trump's political base for her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. After repeatedly saying that the administration would release the Justice Department's investigatory documents on Epstein, the Trump administration said in recent days that they did not plan further disclosures related to the prominent financier and sex offender found dead in a jail cell in 2019.
'Pam Bondi will reopen Alcatraz the same day Trump lets her release the Epstein files. So… never,' Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media.
Pelosi called the proposal 'the Trump Administration's stupidest initiative yet' in a statement Wednesday evening. ''It should concern us all that clearly the only intellectual resources the Administration has drawn upon for this foolish notion are decades-old fictional Hollywood movies,' she said.
State Sen. Scott Weiner, D-San Francisco, called the proposal a 'dangerous idea' in a statement early Thursday morning. He said he was concerned that Trump will turn the former prison into a 'secret police gulag.'
Alcatraz operated as a federal maximum security penitentiary from 1934 to 1963, with an average population of about 275 prisoners, including notorious residents Al Capone and George 'Machine Gun' Kelly.
Running the prison was three times more expensive than any other federal prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as food, water and other supplies had to be brought to the island by boat. Officials estimated the prison needed up to $5 million in restoration and maintenance work at the time it closed.
The island re-opened to the public in 1973 as a national park. It has since become a major tourist attraction and one of the most popular national parks, attracting about 1.2 million visitors a year with ferries shuttling people to and from the historic site.
The infamous former prison has also been featured in movies and books, capturing its place in popular culture. The 1979 Clint Eastwood film, 'Escape from Alcatraz,' dramatized a real-life prison break from the island.
Federal prison officials visited Alcatraz in May to assess the structure. Trump revisited the proposal in a social media post earlier this month in which he described Alcatraz as a crime-fighting symbol — with sharks.
'Because of the Violence and Criminality I have seen due to the Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden, in particular allowing millions of people into our Country who shouldn't be here, I wanted something representative to show how we fight back, and then, it happened, I saw a picture of ALCATRAZ looking so foreboding, and I said, 'We're going to look into renovating and rebuilding the famous ALCATRAZ Prison sitting high on the Bay, surrounded by sharks. What a symbol it is, and will be!'' he wrote.