The silhouette of Alcatraz, trimmed against the cold waters of the Bay of San Francisco, has fascinated generations. Since he closed its doors as a federal prison in 1963, The rock (as popularly knew) was transformed into One of the most visited tourist destinations California. More than 1.5 million people visited it per year.
But now, the president of the United States, Donald Trumpwants to return to Alcatraz Its original function. As announced on its Truth social network, it intends to turn it again into a maximum security prison To house “the most ruthless and violent criminals” of the country.
At the moment it is a statement, since the Republican has only referred to his intention to commission the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of justice, to the Department of national Security and, curiously, to the FBI – which does not manage the prisons – the evaluation of the project.
The president has justified his idea claiming that the United States “can no longer be hostage of criminals, gang members and judges who do not do their job.” Therefore, says the president, Alcatraz should be again a “law symbol, order and justice”.
Billions for reopening
The proposal has been received with skepticism and even mockery. In statements to New York Times, Scott WienerDemocratic senator for California, described it as “absurd” and part of the “increasingly deranged behavior” of Trump. For its part, from the governor’s office Gavin Newsomyour spokesman Izzy Gardon He ironized: “It seems that today is another ‘day of distraction’ in Washington, DC.”
Along these lines, there are many who highlight that restoring Alcatraz would cost billions of dollars at a time when the administration already plans to drastically cut the budget of the Department of Justice.
A fearsome past
Alcatraz, nestled on a rocky island, was originally a military fortress in the nineteenth century and then a military prison. In 1934, he became a federal prison of maximum securitydestined for the most conflicting inmates.
This jail had Capacity for about 300 prisonersbut normally housed between 150 and 250 inmates at the same time, each in an individual cell.
Among its walls, legendary crime figures passed as To the Capone, George Machine Gun Kelly y Robert Stroudthe famous Bird man. The conditions were very hard: tiny cells, strict codes of silence, brutal punishments such as isolation in The hole and a military regime of rail discipline.
-During its 29 years of operation, Alcatraz saw 14 escape attempts starring 36 prisoners. The most famous was that of Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers in 1962who mocked surveillance, escaped by ventilation ducts and disappeared in an impromptu raft.
For months the three inmates managed to expand a ventilation duct that was under the frogs of each cell and created a shooting raft. After accessing the upper ventilation duct they managed to go outside and the sea.
The vigilantes warned the next morning their disappearance, on the beds of the three prisoners they restored fake heads sculpted with wax and soap. The coast guard who found remains of the raft, a rowing and the wallet of one of the Anglin brothers, gave them disappeared, and the FBI closed the case, according to Efe.
They never found their bodies, and the mystery feeds theories and stories until today, even movies such as The leak of Alcatraz con Clint Eastwood. The truth is that escape was complicated, not only because of the cold of the Pacific water, but also for the strong currents and by the sharks that are in the area.
Between myth and reality
The prison closed in 1963, mainly due to its very high maintenance cost and the deterioration caused by the salinity of the sea. Since 1973, he is part of the National Parks Service and has established himself as a museum and symbol of US criminal history.
It even retains vestiges of the historic indigenous movement that occupied the island between 1969 and 1971 in its demand for abandoned federal lands.
The mythical prison of Alcatraz.
In the face of comparison with the current Florence Maximum Security Prison, Colorado, which has never registered a leak, Alcatraz today seems more frozen in time than a viable safety bastion: Restoring its infrastructure would require years of work and large federal investments.
Trump’s proposal, therefore, It seems more a symbolic and political gesture than a practical plan. Alcatraz, who went from being a prison hell to a tourist magnet, returns to the center of the American national debate as an emblem of political pulses between security, nostalgia and show.
