A day after President Trump said he wants to reopen the nearly century-old prison as a symbol of law and order, tourists roaming the decayed historic grounds struggled to grasp the logic.
— The exhibits on Alcatraz Island, the infamous federal prison that decades ago was shuttered and preserved as a national park site and tourist attraction, invite visitors to imagine what it was like to be a guard or an inmate confined to the lonesome, foggy rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay.
But on Monday, a day after President Trump posted on social media that he wants to reopen the nearly century-old prison as a “substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” many tourists were imagining a very different role: what it would be like to be the construction manager who might actually have to figure out how to make that happen.
“I’m all for what [Trump] is doing, but this doesn’t make sense,” said Beverly Klir, 63, an ardent Trump supporter who was visiting from Chicago. “I believe Gitmo [the prison at Guantanamo Bay] may be better. That’s where they all belong. They don’t belong here.”
She and her husband were standing amid a riot of pink flowers on the island’s craggy bluffs, looking out at the Golden Gate Bridge as a pair of Canada geese and three fuzzy ducklings waddled by. Behind them loomed the prison, its fortress-like facade menacing in appearance, but also a testament to age and weather, with crumbling stucco, deteriorated masonry and leaking joints.
Higher up on the island, outside the three-story cellhouse where some of the nation’s most incorrigible prisoners were once locked away in primitive cells, 10-year-old Melody Garcia, visiting with family from Concord, appeared equally perplexed. “Most of Alcatraz is broken down and stuff,” she said.
Still, within hours of Trump’s pronouncement, the Bureau of Prisons released a statement saying it was already on the job.
“The Bureau of Prisons will vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda,” said BOP Director William K. Marshall III. “I have ordered an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps. USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice.”
Many California officials, meanwhile, responded with a range of ridicule and concern. A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom dismissed the pronouncement as a ploy designed to distract voters from grim economic news. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) called it “unhinged.
