Did Donald Trump’s plan reopen Alcatraz as a prison?

US President Donald Trump has doubled on his proposal to open and expand Alcatraz, the once noted prison island in the icy waters of San Francisco Bay.

Alcatraz, known as the Rock – has been closed for decades and is now a historic landmark visited by millions of tourists every year.

The US president says he believes the prison can be used once to accommodate dangerous prisoners and serve as a symbol of law and order in the United States.

But experts say that the renewal of the destroyed remains of the once -formed prison is “not realistic at all.”

Here’s what we know about the plan.

Situated on an island about 1.25 miles (2 km) on the coast of San Francisco, Alcatraz was originally built as a naval defense, but was restored in the early 20th century as a military prison.

In 1934, he was officially transformed into a federal prison – the Federal Penitarian of Alcatraz – the notorious prisoners, including Gangster Al Capone, Mickey Cohen and George Karcana Kelly.

The prison was one of the most famous in the United States at the time and was considered inevitable because of the strong currents and frigid temperatures of San Francisco Bay.

The facility is also known from the 1979 film, the American biographical prison drama “Alcatraz’s Escape”, which told an escape from prisoners since 1962 with Clint Eastwood with its participation in Ringer Frank Morris.

It was also the place of the 1996 movie The Rock, starring Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage, for a former SAS captain and a FBI chemist who saves hostages from Alcatraz Island.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prison, BOP, was almost three times more expensive to work by other federal institutions and was eventually closed by Prosecutor General Robert Kennedy in 1963.

The island and the prison are already a museum run by the National Park Service. More than 1.4 million people visit each year.

“Alcatraz is a place where the past is encountered with the present,” said Christine Lenkedz, president and CEO of the National Conservation of Golden Gate Parks in a statement sent to the BBC.

“It challenges us to listen, to learn and to transfer the stories that still form our world,” she added.

Donald Trump is not the first president to again open the facility as a detention center.

In 1981, Alcatraz was one of 14 sites considered by the Reagan administration, holding up to 20,000 refugees who fled Cuba to Florida in the famous Mariel Boatlift.

The site was eventually rejected due to the complete lack of adequate facilities and its value as a historic tourist site.

In a social post of truth on May 4, Trump first stated that he directed his government to open again and expanded the island prison, saying that “too long America was struck by vicious, violent and repetitive criminals.”

Speaking to reporters in the White House the next day, Trump said that he said alkatra “is something very strong, very powerful” – law and order.

“We need law and order in this country,” he said. “So we’ll look at it. Some of the people here will work very hard on this.”

As he said he found the idea of ​​”interesting”, Trump also admitted that the prison is currently a “big hill”, which is “rusty and rotting.”

“This thing is something that is both terrible and beautiful and strong and unhappy,” he said.

Trump’s border king Tom Homan also told reporters that Alcatraz could be an “variant” for “significant threats to public safety and threats to national security.”

“It has to be on the table,” he added.

Shortly after Trump’s comments made news around the world, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice Chad Gilmartin said in a statement that BOP “worked to restore and open alkatraz to serve as a symbol of law and order.”

But the prison experts and historians expressed serious doubts as to whether the plan was realized.

“To be Frank, at first I decided it was a joke,” said Hugh Hervitz, who plays the post of BOP director between May 2018 and August 2019, “BBC told. “It’s not realistic to think you can repair it. You’ll have to tear it apart and start over.”

Mr Harvitz pointed out a number of problems with the facility, including buildings that “literally fall apart,” cells in which “a person with six feet cannot stand up.”

“There are no security upgrades. No cameras. Without enclosure,” he added. “You can’t run prison.”

“I have two words: water and sewage,” said Jolen Babik, author and historian of Alcatraz, who lived there for two stands as a child with his father, the prison administrator.

“In its prime, the entire sewer for 500 or more people was just thrown into the bay,” she said. “Nowadays it must be removed. It’s just not realistic. But it captures the imagination of all.”

When the facility closed it in 1963, BOP said it was almost three times more expensive to work with alkatraz than any other federal prison – the capacity costs were $ 10 and $ 13, compared to between $ 3 and $ 5 for other facilities. It was partly because it required food and supplies to be removed by boat.

In today’s federal prisoners per capita prisoners are between $ 120 and $ 164 – which means that costs can increase to over $ 500 per person in a facility such as Alcatraz, which can only hold about 340 prisoners in their peak.

“It was a stunningly expensive one to maintain convicted there,” says John Martini, a historian who spent several years in Alcatraz as a ranger in the National Park Service. “Things haven’t changed. But the place has gone down.”

“It’s essentially a shell. Even the concrete has major problems. The park has put millions in structural stabilization,” he added. “They will need water, electricity, heat and sewage. None of these features.”

“This (Trump’s comments) is just another twist in the strange Alcatraz story,” Martini added.