Alcatraz as a Prison? Tourists Say Trump Is on His Own Island.

On Monday morning, boatloads of tourists walked around Alcatraz Island and peered inside tiny prison cells to learn about the most notorious inmates who remained there and those who attempted to flee. Except for one topic that simply could not be avoided in the conversations echoing off the old cellblock walls, the tour at the renowned San Francisco attraction was typical. Is it true that President Trump wants to turn Alcatraz into a federal prison once more? Many of the international tourists in the morning tour groups had received phone alerts about Trump's plan or had read news reports over breakfast. Some people wondered if they might be the very last people allowed to wander the island. However, no one seemed to think the concept was nearly as innovative as Mr. Trump believed it was. A German visitor named Philipp Neumann commented, "I thought it was a joke." "Is it not, more or less, a ruin?" Yes, a ruin, with some buildings falling apart to the point where they no longer have roofs or walls. The cells have broken toilets, if they have any at all, with no running water or sewage system.

Because the cellblocks' exterior walls are so weak, they are reinforced with netting to keep concrete from falling on tourists' heads. A lot of the island is covered in bird droppings. Boat transport is required for all supplies, including fuel and food.

Since the day that the storied prison saw its last inmate 62 years ago, Alcatraz has been almost frozen in time. Officials had deemed the facility to be a decaying relic that was insufficient to house inmates when the federal government closed it. Since then, Alcatraz has been more successful as a fictional prison than as a real one. Burt Lancaster received an Academy Award nomination for best actor for his performance in the 1962 film "Birdman of Alcatraz." “Escape From Alcatraz,” starring Clint Eastwood, was a 1979 hit that dramatized a famous attempt to flee the island. And “The Rock” was a 1996 Hollywood blockbuster that introduced Alcatraz to a younger generation of moviegoers.

It could be that Mr. When Trump declared on social media on Sunday that he had directed federal agencies to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz to serve as "a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE," he was thinking about "Escape From Alcatraz."

In the hours since President Donald Trump declared his plans to reopen a “substantially enlarged” Alcatraz to “house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” California politicians have nearly universally derided the idea as a distraction, a fantasy, or a farce. State Sen. The proposal was described as "absurd on its face" by Scott Wiener. At a news conference on Monday morning, current San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie echoed Nancy Pelosi's description of the concept as unserious. In an interview, Nancy Tung, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, said she viewed Trump’s plan as “asinine.”

“I’m kind of at a loss for words on this,” Tung said. “The way for the country to project strength is not by returning to the past. The days of Alcatraz being a place for incarceration have long since passed.”

Trump’s declaration marked another pivot point in the strange and sordid history of Alcatraz, a large rock about 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco. Originally a fort, the site was briefly operated as a military prison before opening as a federal penitentiary in 1934.

When he was asked on Monday how he came up with the idea, he said that he should have been a “moviemaker,” and he praised the island’s top-notch security.

He misspoke when he said, "Nobody ever escaped." “One person almost got there, but they — as you know the story — they found his clothing rather badly ripped up. It was a lot of shark bites, a lot of problems.”

Shreds of a raincoat are found floating in the bay in "Escape From Alcatraz."