By Tara Duggan,
Officials with the Federal Bureau of Prisons visited Alcatraz last week and plan to return in the future for an assessment, the head of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area revealed at a public meeting in the Presidio on Thursday.
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“I have been in discussion with folks from the Bureau of Prisons,” GGNRA Superintendent David Smith said at the meeting, which was held at the Golden Gate Club at the main post. “They have been out here. They’ll be coming out again to do assessments of the structure.”
William Marshall, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, told Fox News in a recent interview that “we’ve got engineering teams out there now.” Marshall said he still needs “to make a trip out there as well.”
President Donald Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz as a prison, though it has not been used for that purpose since 1963. Former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered the prison closed due to its high operating cost (all supplies must be brought in by boat), small size and multiple escape attempts. Few people knowledgeable about Alcatraz think reopening it is realistic.
Smith, whose GGNRA jurisdiction includes Alcatraz, said at the Presidio meeting: “I don’t think this is likely in our future.” He cited the “amount of money that would be necessary” as well as the “amount of legal hurdles that will stand in the way,” and said it was “just not well-situated” for the Bureau of Prisons.
But Marshall, whose Fox News interview was conducted by Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, said the project was both “exciting” and plausible. He said that “lighter-weight” material would be key for the prison structure.
“When you think of Alcatraz, you think of Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Lambeau Field, those types of facilities — you get that kind of feeling about Alcatraz when you think of those historical venues,” Marshall said. “And so yeah — we absolutely think we can get it done.”
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