Alcatraz: Last chance to see it as a tourist - and not an inmate?

Yahoo

06-05-2025

US President Donald Trump wants to reopen the notorious Alcatraz prison, a tourist attraction and museum for over 60 years - twice as long as the island in the bay of San Francisco was ever used as a prison.
For 29 years, the island served as a place of exile for the "worst of the worst," troublemakers and masters of escape. The last prisoners to be held there were released in 1963.
Trump says the new Alcatraz facility will be "substantially enlarged" and will "house America's most ruthless and violent offenders."
In the past, the United States had not hesitated to keep the most dangerous criminals far away from anyone they could harm, Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
"That's the way it's supposed to be. No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets."
Too expensive to run?
Known as "The Rock," Alcatraz was once the maximum security prison, located on a wind-swept island in the bay of San Francisco.
As a museum, it now pulls in more than a million visitors a year, but when it was shut in 1963, the prison had become too costly to operate, with food and water having to be brought in by boat.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prison, Alcatraz was three times more expensive to run, with the daily per capita cost more than $10, compared with $3 at other prisons like USP Atlanta.
The old buildings crumbled faster in the damp sea air. The living conditions were criticized as inhumane and Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered its closure.
In 1972, Alcatraz was declared a monument and opened to visitors, who can now walk through rusted mesh doors into the cold cells, tour the dining hall and shower facilities.
The Bureau of Prisons has told US media it will comply with the order, but has not given a time frame. As it stands, the National Park Service has not yet changed its Alcatraz museum opening times, while a San Francisco boat service is still operating day trips to the island.
Experts believe the complex, which was already in dire need of repair at the time the prison was shut, would now need to be entirely rebuilt.
Ashley Rubin, an associate professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, told Time that reconstructing Alcatraz as a prison could even take years and might only be finished after Trump's term as president.
An Alcatraz prison would also foremost be a "symbol," as Trump himself says, and less a large-capacity prison, since the size of the complex and the island limited prisoner numbers to just 336.
Who were 'the worst of the worst'?
Nowadays you can reach the island from San Francisco on a short, quarter-hour boat trip.
But for the 27 men released on March 21, 1963, it was a momentous journey. They were the last inmates to leave the notorious prison 60 years ago, to be transferred to other institutions.
Described at the time by the San Francisco Chronicle as "pale, silent" men, they were handcuffed and shackled as they walked ashore, their heads bowed.
Alcatraz Island is now a museum as well as a protected breeding ground for birds who are freer to come and go.
But for 29 years, the island served as a place of exile for the "worst of the worst," troublemakers and masters of escape.
The jail was considered escape-proof and thus suited to felons like Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes, Alvin "Creepy Karpis" Karpavicz and Robert Stroud.
Despite their colourful names, each had a number in the jail that incarcerated a total of 1,576 men during its time in service, that began in 1934.
The prisoners were held in cells measuring only 1.5 by 2.7 metres.
The Rock never held more than 300 prisoners at a time but many guards lived with their families on the barren island, which at the time was also home to dozens of children, surrounded by the rough waters of the Pacific.
Really an inescapeable prison?
Despite its fearsome reputation, during the time it was a prison 36 men tried to flee in 14 separate escapes.
Nearly all were caught or didn't survive, with some being shot in the attempt or drowning as they sought to make it to the mainland.
The fate of three, however, remains unknown to this day. Their spectacular escape was staged in June 1962, when the men used spoons and an improvised drill to dig through walls and ventilation shafts.
They continued their journey using a makeshift raft that they assembled using rubber raincoats and other things they found.
Their whereabouts remains a mystery, though the authorities say they drowned in the cold water, unable to survive the powerful currents.
The myth of Alcatraz lives on, thanks to gangster stories and adventure thrillers starring movie stars like Clint Eastwood and Burt Lancaster.
The site became a sought-after Hollywood backdrop for films such as "Birdman of Alcatraz," "Escape from Alcatraz," "Murder in the First" and "The Rock."
Now, seabirds come and go, using the rocky island as a breeding ground. It was they who gave the 500-metre island its name, after Spanish sailors called it "La isla de los Alcatraces," the "Island of the Pelicans."