By Olivia Hebert
SFGate
SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is dismissing renewed efforts to reopen Alcatraz Island as a federal prison after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited the site Thursday morning.
“Pam Bondi will reopen Alcatraz the same day Trump lets her release the Epstein files. So, never,” Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s director of communications, told SFGATE.
The high-profile visit comes two months after President Donald Trump floated the idea of reopening the long-shuttered penitentiary as a maximum-security prison. In a May post on Truth Social, the president announced that he’d directed the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to look into renovating the site to bring it back to its former glory to “serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE,” where the “most ruthless and violent offenders” would be housed.
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Burgum echoed those remarks in a Thursday post on X, writing: “Spent the day on Alcatraz Island, a [ National Park Service ] site, to start the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals. This administration is restoring safety, justice, and order to our streets.”
The National Parks Conservation Association rejected a proposal, which was supported by Burgum, to take away the National Park Service’s control of Alcatraz.
“Alcatraz is one of the most iconic and heavily visited national park sites in our country,” Kristen Brengel, the association’s senior vice president of government affairs, told SFGATE. "... The administration has made it clear they’re willing to ignore the value of our national parks and the rich history, culture and legacy they protect. Congress now faces a choice to either stand up for Alcatraz and the stories it holds or allow our national parks to be sacrificed for political gain.”
House Republicans are expected to introduce legislation that would make reopening the site as a penitentiary possible, according to a Wednesday statement from Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
“With stiff competition, the planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” Pelosi said. “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.”
Pelosi continued to call the legislation a “diversionary tactic” to draw attention from the effects of the president’s tax bill.
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“It remains to be seen how this Administration could possibly afford to spend billions to convert and maintain Alcatraz as a prison when they are already adding trillions of dollars to the national debt with their sinful law,” Pelosi added. “Should reason not prevail and Republicans bring this absurdity before the Congress, Democrats will use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to stop the lunacy.”
Originally opened in 1934, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary operated for nearly 30 years as one of the most secure maximum-security prisons in the country, housing infamous criminals like Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The prison shut down in 1963 due to high operating costs, which were reportedly three times higher compared with other prisons. The closure led to the opening of the USP Marion in Illinois, and later, the supermax facility in Florence, Colorado.
Today, the 22.5-acre island is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and draws more than 1.6 million visitors annually, generating around $60 million in revenue, according to the National Park Service.
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