U.S. President Donald Trump claims he wants to convert Alcatraz back into a federal prison, decades after the California island fortress was converted into a U.S. tourist destination because it had become too costly to house criminals.
The prison off the coast of San Francisco is where the U.S. government sent notorious gangsters Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly, as well as lesser-known men who were considered too dangerous to lock up elsewhere.
Infamous Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger served time in Alcatraz, as did Canadian bank robber Alvin Karpis and Soviet spy Morton Sobell.
Circled by herons and gulls and often shrouded in fog, Alcatraz has been the setting for movies featuring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage (The Rock), and Clint Eastwood (Escape from Alcatraz).
Trump says Alcatraz, currently part of the U.S. National Park Service, suddenly is needed to house America’s “most ruthless and violent” criminals.
“When we were a more serious nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Trump said Sunday on his Truth Social site.
California Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener criticized Trump, saying he wants to create a “domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay.”
What is Alcatraz?
Alcatraz Island is in the bay north of the city, and visible from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. It is best known for its years as a federal prison, from 1934-63, but its history is much longer.
U.S. president Millard Fillmore in 1850 declared the island for public purposes, according to the park service, and it soon became a military site. Confederates were housed there during the Civil War.
By the 1930s, the U.S. government decided that it needed a place to hold the worst criminals, and Alcatraz became the choice for a prison.
“A remote site was sought, one that would prohibit constant communication with the outside world by those confined within its walls,” the park service said.
“Although land in Alaska was being considered, the availability of Alcatraz Island conveniently coincided with the government’s perceived need for a high-security prison.”
Did it match the Hollywood picture?
Karpis, the Canadian bank robber, served more than 30 years in prison, including a long stretch in Alcatraz. In the 1970s, he spoke to CBC about his time there.
“Was it as awesome, as terrible, as formidable, as Hollywood has led us to believe?” broadcaster Larry Solway asked him during a conversation on CBC’s This Monday about him time on “the Rock.”
“Well, I personally, myself, thought it was one of the greatest frauds ever put off on the American public, myself, as far as it being a place filled with murderous ‘public enemies,’ as they referred to these fellas,” Karpis replied. While he conceded the facility had “their share” of notorious residents, he asserted it was “not no more so than any other big state prison.”
That’s not to say there weren’t serious tensions among inmates, at times: Al Capone survived a slashing attack at Alcatraz in 1936, and both inmates and guards were slain at the facility — during various altercations and escape attempts — over the years.
Karpis had been paroled and then deported to Canada in 1969. He later recalled that the RCMP asked him if he planned on hanging out with members of organized crime on this side of the border.
“As I explained to the fellow: Do you think I would be stupid enough to tell you, yes, if I was going to be?” he said during a 1976 interview on CBC’s 90 Minutes Live.
Why did it close?
The remoteness of Alcatraz eventually made it impractical. Everything from food to fuel had to arrive by boat.
“The island had no source of fresh water,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, “so nearly one million gallons of water had to be barged to the island each week.”
The cost to house someone there in 1959 was $10.10 US a day compared with $3 US at a federal prison in Atlanta, the government said. It was cheaper to build a new prison from scratch.
Why is Alcatraz notorious?
Despite the location, many prisoners tried to get out: 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes into the bay, according to the FBI. Nearly all were caught or didn’t survive the cold water and swift current.
In 1969, a group of Native Americans, mostly college students, claimed to have a historical right to Alcatraz and began an occupation that lasted for 19 months until federal authorities intervened in 1971.
Escape from Alcatraz, a 1979 movie starring Eastwood, told the story of John Anglin, his brother Clarence and Frank Morris, who all escaped in 1962, leaving behind handmade plaster heads with real hair in their beds to fool guards.
“For the 17 years we worked on the case, no credible evidence emerged to suggest the men were still alive, either in the U.S. or overseas,” the FBI said.
The Rock, a 1996 fictional thriller with Connery and Cage, centres on an effort to rescue hostages from rogue Marines on Alcatraz.
Alcatraz became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and was opened to the public in 1973, a decade after it was closed as a prison.
