2 months ago
Donald Trump is asking for $152m to reconstruct Alcatraz, a erstwhile national situation disconnected nan seashore of San Francisco, according to a fund connection released connected Friday for nan 2027 fiscal year.
Last May, Trump first called upon nan Department of Justice, nan FBI and Homeland Security to rebuild nan prison. He heaped praise connected Alcatraz’s estimation successful a Truth Social post.
“When we were a much superior nation, successful times past, we did not hesitate to fastener up nan astir vulnerable criminals, and support them acold distant from anyone they could harm. That’s nan measurement it’s expected to be,” he wrote then. “The reopening of Alcatraz will service arsenic a awesome of law, bid and justice.”
The scheme has been contentious. Several elected officials successful California person questioned nan feasibility and merit of specified an undertaking.
At present, Alcatraz lacks water, power, state and sewage systems, according to nan San Francisco Standard.
California authorities legislator Scott Wiener’s agency estimated this week that rebuilding nan spot would costs complete $2bn, KQED reported.
Last year, successful an interview pinch CBS Sacramento, authorities politician Gavin Newsom condemned Trump’s imagination arsenic a “colossally bad fiscal idea”, adding: “Nothing astir this makes immoderate sense.”
On Friday, Nancy Pelosi, nan erstwhile speaker of nan House, said successful a news release: “Rebuilding Alcatraz into a modern situation is simply a stupid conception that would beryllium thing much than a discarded of payer dollars and an reproach to nan intelligence of nan American people.”
The management would usage nan $152m to screen nan first twelvemonth of nan restoration project’s costs, according to nan fund proposal. If nan scheme were to advance, it’s unclear what nan timeline for reopening nan spot would be.
A spokesperson for nan White House did not instantly reply to a petition for comment.
That fig is simply a portion of a larger $1.7bn petition to money nan Bureau of Prisons’ “crumbling detention facilities”.
The maximum information penitentiary housed immoderate of nan nation’s astir notorious criminal offenders from 1934 until its closure successful 1963.
Dubbed “the Rock”, Alcatraz’s location connected an land made flight difficult but besides made operations costly. The attraction expenses spurred nan facility’s closure, according to nan Bureau of Prisons. It has since go a vaunted humanities tract that complete a cardinal visitors flock to annually.
