Always turned on by his most extreme ideas, Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison. He apparently got this twisted idea after watching Don Siegel’s 1979 film with Clint Eastwood, Escape from Alcatraz, one of the best prison movies ever made, a film with a deep sensitivity to those who live under confinement. Trump says he picked Alcatraz because it’s a prison no one’s ever escaped from, which is a pretty clear indication that he didn’t watch the Siegel/Eastwood flick, which documents the 1971 escape by three prisoners, Frank Morris and the brothers Clarence and John Anglin. (I doubt Trump has the attention span to watch any film that doesn’t include him.) In fact, there were 11 known escape attempts, five of which appear to have been successful.
But of course, preventing prison escapes is not the point of Trump’s theatrics. The point is to sound tough-to-the-point-of-sadistic while getting under the skin of California Government Gavin Newsom and San Francisco elites, for whom Alcatraz has become a weird emblem of the Bay Area, attracting more than 1.5 million tourists and generating more than $60 million in revenue from ferry tickets and tours of the Island.
The issue certainly isn’t a pressing concern about federal prisons, which isn’t escapes. There’s only been one escape from a Super Max prison (none at Florence, however) and nine from medium security federal prisons in the last 20 years, and all of the escapees were recaptured within a few days. Most prison escapes aren’t escapes from prison, but people who just walk away from parole, home confinement, skip bail or miss court dates. The real issue with America’s over-stuffed federal (and state) prisons is keeping prisoners alive, where the conditions are so unforgiving that in 2019 alone, there were 695 suicides in state, local, and federal prisons and jails.
Trump, ever in search of sadistic pleasures, wants his own CECOT-like prison to intern what he calls America’s “most vicious and violent criminals.” After prowling Alcatraz’s dark corridors, where men spent years in solitary confinement, in cramped cells that would turn anyone into a claustrophobic, not allowed to speak to each other or communicate with the outside world, blacks and whites separated, you can see why this haunted rock with its chill history of retribution and psychological torture appeals to Trump’s debased instincts.
The reconstruction of Alcatraz, which is a ruined prison on top of a ruined Army fort on stolen ground, wouldn’t survive a DOGE audit. ADX Florence costs $60 million to build and more to operate: $33,000 a year per prisoner versus $18,500 a year at a medium security prison. Yet Alcatraz would prove even more outlandishly expensive. From the time the prison doors opened in 1934, Alcatraz was America’s most expensive prison, costing three times as much per inmate to run. And it was falling apart almost as soon as it began operations, with the spray from the salt water eroding the prison’s walls and foundations. RFK, Jr, ordered its closure and replacement by a new maximum security prison in Marion, Illinois, in 1963.
The most thrilling Alcatraz story isn’t about people trying to escape the island but about the 89 Native Americans who invaded the island, reclaimed it, and occupied it for 19 months, from November 20, 1969, through June 11, 1971. On the day the tribal activists landed, the lone guard on Alcatraz sent out a radio alert: “Mayday! Mayday! “The Indians have landed!”
In researching the Indians of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz (Gannet) Island, I spent three days exploring the Island and photographing the remains of the old fort and rusting prison, much of which has been reclaimed by the island’s vegetation, birds, and marine life.. It’s still not too late to do the right thing and give it back.
All photos by Jeffrey St. Clair.
