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A delegation of US officials toured Alcatraz on Thursday as part of Donald Trump’s pledge to reopen the shuttered federal prison and tourist attraction in the San Francisco Bay, amid an outcry from California leaders who have called the plan “lunacy”.
Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, who visited the island prison with attorney general Pam Bondi, said the federal government was beginning “the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals”.
The president’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz, which closed in 1963 due to steep operating costs and is now a National Park Service museum with 1.4 million visitors a year, has attracted fierce criticism from local leaders, California Democrats and the state governor.
“With stiff competition, the planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” said Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker and San Francisco congresswoman, ahead of the delegation’s visit. She described it as a “diversionary tactic” from the recently passed budget and “lunacy”.
“It remains to be seen how this administration could possibly afford to spend billions to convert and maintain Alcatraz as a prison when they are already adding trillions of dollars to the national debt with their sinful law.”
In May, Trump said his administration would reopen and expand Alcatraz to “house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders”. This week, as the administration continued to deal with the outcry over the decision not to release additional files related to Jeffrey Epstein, Bondi and Burgum traveled to the site.
“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 on Thursday. “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.”
But reopening the prison would be an enormous logistical and financial undertaking. The facility, known for its brutal conditions and escape attempts, closed because its operating costs were three times more than any other federal prison due to its physical isolation – and million of dollars were needed for restoration. While in operation, nearly 1m gallons of water were transported to the island each week, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The site later became a symbol of Indigenous resistance when Indigenous American activists began a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz in 1969, and opened to the public for tours in 1973. Officials have said it is in no condition to serve as a detention center.
“There is no realistic plan for Alcatraz to host anyone other than visitors,” Daniel Lurie, San Francisco’s mayor, said on Thursday. “If the federal government has billions of dollars to spend in San Francisco, we could use that funding to keep our streets safe and clean and help our economy recover.”
In response to news of tour, Gavin Newsom’s press office said: “Pam Bondi will reopen Alcatraz the same day Trump lets her release the Epstein files. So … never.”
