Alcatraz island was known“The Rock” closed 62 years ago, and San Francisco has channeled the public’s macabre fascination with life inside the notorious prison to turn it into one of the city’s top tourist attractions.
Visitors can wander through the Gardens of Alcatraz, peruse the Big Lockup Exhibit, or take a night tour where one can “enjoy the beauty of a sunset silhouetting the Golden Gate Bridge” as well as “experience a cell door demonstration.” Over the years, Boy Scouts have clamored to hold overnight campouts in the infamous isolation cells of D Block. Athletes compete in prison-themed events, including a canoe race circling the island and the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon.
Calling the prison a “symbol of law and order,” Trump on Sunday said he is directing the Bureau of Prisons and other federal agencies to rebuild Alcatraz to house “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.” San Francisco boosters aren’t keen on the idea and visitors aren’t so sure, either.
On Monday, National Park Ranger Matthew Connelly welcomed a crowd of more than 100 tourists and said he’d take questions. Just not all. When the subject of Trump’s proposal came up, he looked concerned and directed a reporter to call public affairs.
Those on the packed tour had plenty of thoughts after trudging from a ferryboat up a steep, quarter-mile walkway to the imposing fortress. Before entering the main gate, an Australian visitor jokingly suggested Trump lock himself into a new prison there. “He should lead by example,” the man said with a laugh. He and his wife declined to give their names. “No thanks mate, we want to get home.”
Taking selfies with his wife in one of the windowless cells on a prison corridor called Broadway, John La Pierre, a 62-year-old tourist from the Netherlands, was supportive of Trump’s plan.
Naomi Alexandra and Chris Manikowski in the former chow hall. Photo: JIM CARLTON for WSJ
“I think the idea itself to put people on a certain island where they have no comfort, especially for those high delinquents, that’s a good idea,” La Pierre said. But he was wary of whether such a historic site could again be made into a modern prison complex.
Sitting in what had been the chow hall, Londoners Chris Manikowski and Naomi Alexandra said that instead of doubling down on a prison with such stark conditions, Trump should take a page from Norway, which treats prisoners well and has low recidivism rates.
“I think the times have changed, and for prisoners to spend a week without showering in those dark cells, it’s too much,” Manikowski, 28, said.
Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco agreed, calling the president’s idea “unhinged and terrifying.” Trump wants to turn Alcatraz “into a domestic gulag in the middle of San Francisco Bay,” Wiener wrote on social media.
Trump said reopening Alcatraz ties to his campaign promise to lower violent crime. His pitch harks back to the prison’s 1930s origins, when it opened to deal with “the most incorrigible inmates in federal prisons,” according to a government history. It operated as a maximum-security facility for nearly three decades, closing in 1963 because of millions of dollars in needed repairs and the expense of hauling all supplies, including fresh water, to the facility by boat.
Alcatraz was tiny by the standards of most federal facilities, never housing more than around 275 prisoners. Its shadow is huge.
The prison has graced the silver screen in such films as Michael Bay’s 1996 action thriller “The Rock” and 1979’s “Escape from Alcatraz,” starring Clint Eastwood. It housed famous criminals including mobster Al Capone and George “Machine-Gun” Kelly.
At times, Alcatraz was almost as famous for those who tried to escape as it was for those who were inside. Contrary to myth, cold temperatures and strong currents—not sharks—were the biggest obstacles to making it the mile-plus to shore. Trained swimmers as young as age 9 have successfully made the journey that so many prisoners failed.
Visitors Monday had mixed views on Trump’s plans for Alcatraz, one of the most storied prisons in American history. Photo: Ethan Swope/Bloomberg
In one unsuccessful escape in 1941, a prisoner who gave up after hitting the Bay’s cold water later tried to escape again from a San Francisco federal courtroom. Another man attempted to leave by stealing an Army uniform and calmly walking aboard an Army launch. He was promptly returned to Alcatraz when the boat landed at nearby Angel Island.
Today, more than a million visitors each year travel to the island, according to the National Park Service. In peak season, tourists book tickets weeks in advance.
Not everyone in San Francisco has understood why a sinister prison is such a draw. “It’s heinous,” declared one writer on “Broke-ass Stuart,” a local alternative website, noting the irony of a progressive city touting a museum of human suffering. “I don’t think moms from Minnesota should be allowed to take selfies in rooms where men pushed past the point of no return hung themselves.”
For those looking to bring a dose of reality back home from the prison tour, visitors can buy rectangular magnets reminding them of Alcatraz’s central tenets. Like Regulation #5: “You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. ANYTHING ELSE YOU GET IS A PRIVILEGE.”
Parents seeking some tough-love discipline can slap Regulation #23 on the fridge: “If you make GROUNDLESS COMPLAINTS for the purpose of…STIRRING UP TROUBLE…you will be subject to DISCIPLINARY ACTION.”
For $13.95, tourists can also take home a replica tin inmate cup, which had the advantage back in the day of not being able to be broken into shards that could become a weapon.
Carson Brock, a 24-year-old from Cincinnati who voted for Trump, said from the prison’s gift shop that he favors preserving Alcatraz’s history over reopening. “But if that’s what he wants to do, then I guess so be it,” he said.
One Alberta resident touring the island was reticent to share her views, but concluded: “We’re Canadian, we don’t really care.”
Visitor Mike Neville, another Trump supporter, said he thinks turning Alcatraz back into a prison would be cost-prohibitive. The 61-year-old, visiting from Colorado Springs, Colo., has a better plan: “I always liked the idea of turning it into a casino.”
ztakddot | April 30, 2025 at 9:10 pm
Newsome. Nothing more needs to be said. His name is now a curse word.
newsom; verb: To totally screw something up; see FUBAR
Yeah. I was thinking of the F in FUBAR as in: Before he knew it he was Newsomed!
or Newsome around and find out = NAFO. That would lead to something like: She NAFO’d
or she Newsomed around and found out.
There would also be the ever popular NOAD: Newsome off and die. And then we come to
your favorite and mineL NUBAR = Newsomed Up Beyond all Recognition.
In order to prop up the economy, Newsom could always move the state capital back
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, nearly all of the USSR’s manufacturing capability, necessary for the conduct of the war, was in the path of the Wehrmacht. The Russians disassembled thousands of factories and moved them east of the Ural mountains, putting them out of range of even the Luftwaffe.
It would be a relatively simple operation, in comparison to the scope of the USSR’s reaction to the invasion, to dismantle the refineries in CA and move them to friendlier neighboring states.
Travis can be supplied via tanker trucks. Electric tanker trucks.
I don’t know much about Travis other than it’s a GIGANTIC base, home to the AMC with a dozen or more resident units. A Marine Corps air base, which is generally only a fraction of the size (in terms of aircraft), will easily use well over 1-million gallons of Jet A each year, to say nothing of the fuel for the maintenance and other supply missions. Travis likely uses fuel measured in the tens of millions each year. That’s a lot tanker trucks.
Travis is the home of the 60th Air Mobility Wing. But you are correct. Travis is the gateway to the Pacific (and the largest military aerial port in the US).
I would be surprised if there isn’t robust existing authority the president can use to exempt critical infrastructure from state regulatory actions (particularly for national defense). If that exist, Trump should use it tomorrow and extend whatever tax/regulatory incentives he can to incent Valero to keep the refinery open. The cost to relocate Travis would be…exorbitant, and probably not even possible no matter what the cost because of geography. Travis is a gateway location between CONUS and the Pacific and Southeast Asian theaters.
Hope this pressures Maricopa County to release their requirement for the boutique gas mixture that saddles them with the highest pump prices in Arizona
When you make it impossible to do business, don’t be surprised when businesses leave
All refineries need to leave California and then then need to tell California they will no make their special blends. Good luck walking to work on the interstate.
“California is an energy island” – State regulations for their special blend for gasoline is the cause here. Entirely self inflicted. No refinery anywhere in the country, outside of CA, can supply them.
How nice. Guess the federal government might want to reconsider the whole idea of “single-source contracting” when it comes to supplying our military bases. But I doubt they will.
President Trump needs to declare the refineries in California part of the National Defense Act via Executive Order. At the same time have Lee Zeldin rescind California’s special EPA waver. It’s past time that the Federal Government stop giving California special treatment.