Alcatraz reopening sought by Trump
US officials toured Alcatraz as part of the bid by President Donald Trump to reopen the federal prison in San Francisco. This has been met with backlash from leaders in California who decried the proposal as “lunacy.”
Doug Burgam, the interior secretary, visited the island prison with attorney general Pam Bondi. The federal government has started “the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals,” he said.
Alcatraz closed in 1963 due to high operating costs. Since then, it has become a National Park Service museum, seeing 1.4 million annual visitors. The plan to reopen it has been met with fierce criticism from Democrats in California as well as the governor of the state.
“With stiff competition, the planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker and San Francisco congresswoman, said before the visit. She decried the “diversionary tactic” from the recently announced budget.
In May, the president announced that his administration would reopen and expand Alcatraz to “house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders”.
“Alcatraz is the brand known around the world for being effective at housing people that are in incarceration, so this is something we’re here to take a look at,” Burgum told Fox News. “It’s a federal property, its original use was a prison. So part of this would be to test the feasibility of returning it back to its original use.”
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