Alcatraz, President Trump and Al Capone

President Trump stated Sunday, May 4 that he is directing, “…the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”

Alcatraz Island is not an unknown place to me. When I was just starting my career with the National Park Service back in the early 1970s, I was part of the first crew of park ranger tour guides assigned to Alcatraz Island. I’ve been back a handful of times and much has changed on the island during these past 50-plus years.

Now we have this Presidential Edict, and if it is to become a reality, Congress will have to find some billions of dollars in funding to make it happen. The National Park Service will need some time to shut down its operation on the island. Given that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been firing federal employees, including National Park rangers, the closing down of Alcatraz, a place where visitors come to witness a piece of American history, should be easier.

When, or if, this edict is funded, the bulk of the buildings that survive today on the island will have to be torn down. The moist, salt-laden wind, rain and fog from all those decades ago has not been kind to all that rebar-reinforced concrete. New infrastructure, including energy, communications, water and waste, capable of handling this proposed prison operation, must be built. What infrastructure is there today, compared to what a new, larger prison will need, is inadequate. With a new, larger prison structure, a multitude of prison-supporting structures will be needed. All must be built to withstand a really tough environment. The logistics, building designs and planning of this proposed new project will be massive.

All of this new work has to be carried out on an island in the middle of busy San Francisco Bay. Of course, with the impending global tariffs, shipping traffic from Asia and elsewhere entering the bay, loaded with containers and new cars, will be considerably less.

The history of the prison on Alcatraz Island is legend across the world. Trump’s proposal for the reinventing of Alcatraz is rather curious. Trump, in a recent Department of Justice speech, compared himself to Al Capone, who, like him, also faced numerous legal challenges. As for Al Capone, he was imprisoned on Alcatraz in 1934, becoming prisoner number 85.

One has to speculate, did President Trump consider building a large United States Federal Prison out on the Southwest desert somewhere? I guess we will never really know.