U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took a tour of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay Thursday morning as part of President Trump’s directive to revert the popular tourist attraction to a federal penitentiary.
Bondi toured Alcatraz, currently part of the National Park Service, along with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, arriving on a Coast Guard vessel. They were joined by a contingent of administration officials and Secret Service staffers who walked in the chilly bay air among the crumbling buildings, many dating back to the late 19th century.
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The attorney general was seen posing for pictures in front of Alcatraz signs and vista points on the island. Later, Bondi posted an image of her tour on the X social media platform, saying that, “Under President Trump, we are Making America Safe Again.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told CBS News that Bondi and Burgum were visiting Alcatraz to receive a briefing on the facility and the surrounding island. They were also directing staff to collaborate on the necessary planning to rehabilitate and reopen the facility, the spokesperson said.
In May, Mr. Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he was directing the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and Homeland Security to “reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
Following the announcement, Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III said in a statement that his agency would “vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda” and that he ordered “an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps.”
Alcatraz’s history as federal penitentiary
The former Army fortress and military prison was turned into a federal penitentiary in 1934 and housed the country’s most infamous criminals, such as Al Capone and “Machine Gun” Kelly. However, most of the inmates were not notorious gangsters but prisoners who refused to conform to the rules of other federal institutions.
The prison was said to be escape-proof because of the strong bay currents and cold waters surrounding it. The Bureau of Prisons says of the 36 men involved in 14 separate escape attempts, 23 were caught, 6 were shot and killed during their escape, and 2 drowned, leaving five others as either successfully escaped or presumed drowned.
The penitentiary was closed in 1963 due to the high operating costs and deteriorating facilities. In 1972, Alcatraz was designated part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area under the National Park Service, and the following year it opened to the public as a historic site and tourist attraction. The site has undergone multiple restoration efforts to improve visitor facilities and preserve historic structures and natural habitats around the island.
Alcatraz a money-maker for federal government, San Francisco
Alcatraz currently receives about 1.6 million visitors from around the world every year, according to the Park Service. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi lambasted the Trump administration’s plans to reopen Alcatraz as a prison, which would put an end to the approximately $60 million in annual revenue that tourism brings to the National Park Service and the city.
“With stiff competition, the planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” said Pelosi in a prepared statement. “It should concern us all that clearly the only intellectual resources the Administration has drawn upon for this foolish notion are decades-old fictional Hollywood movies.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie had no plans to meet with either Bondi or Burgum, according to his office. He issued a statement criticizing the Trump administration’s plans for Alcatraz.
“There’s no realistic plan to make Alcatraz reopen as anything other than the wonderful tourist attraction that it currently is,” Lurie said. “If the federal government wants to spend billions of dollars, I want them to spend it on clean and safe streets and San Francisco’s economic recovery. Alcatraz draws millions of visitors a year, tens of millions of dollars in economic activity, and that is benefiting San Francisco’s recovery. We’re on the rise and that’s what I’m focused on.”
It’s estimated that reopening Alcatraz as a prison would cost hundreds of millions of dollars upfront and up to $100 million a year in operating costs. When the penitentiary was closed in 1963, the annual operating costs were more than three times that of any other federal prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
