While President Trump’s idea of restoring Alcatraz as a high security prison seems silly, many here believe that the property should indeed be taken away from the National Park Service…which has turned it into a theme park celebrating incarceration.
Alcatraz, famously known as “The Rock,” was a federal prison housing the most dangerous criminals in the U.S. until 1963.
Because it is an isolated island within the sights and sounds of a vibrant San Francisco, the joint was considered the most cruel of all penitentiaries.
Furthermore, it had a strict routine, providing only the basics of medical care, clothing, shelter, and food. Privileges outside of these essentials were not granted, reinforcing its harsh and brutal reputation.
Though Hollywood has popularized daring escape stories, no confirmed prisoner ever successfully made it out of Alcatraz.
It is interesting to note, however, that there was no “death house” here.
Alcatraz was not equipped with a gas chamber or any other means to carry out capital punishment, so that Inmates sentenced for capital crimes committed were transferred to San Quentin for execution.
Thanks to an enlightened policy implemented by California State Governor, Gavin Newsom, all such executions have been put on hold until he leaves office.
Still, the Trump Administration seeks to resurrect Alcatraz as a symbol of punitive justice and life sentence retribution.
This may mean a blow against misery tourism now enabled by the National Park Service which refashioned it as museum for the vulgar masses.
Disembarking from the scheduled ferry tours, these visitors are led on an audio tour by rangers through the solitary confinement unit in the D Block, where many prisoners went mad.
No wonder it is among the most popular destinations for “Tourons,” Park Ranger slang for tourists who behave like morons.
Yet for the same money, more enlightened visitors may opt for a ferry trip to Angel Island that speaks to the national legacy of shameful treatment of foreign immigrants.
As an immigration station on the West Coast from 1910 until 1940, this place functioned as both an immigration and deportation facility, at which some 175,000 Chinese and about 60,000 Japanese immigrants were detained under oppressive conditions, generally from two weeks to six months, before being allowed to enter the United States.
Unlike Ellis Island where Europeans were subject to restrictions that preclude entrance for some but not most immigrants, the Angel Island Immigration Station employed discriminatory policies that were used to prevent Asians from immigrating. This approach was an outgrowth and implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which had resulted from years of racial hostility by white Americans against Chinese workers.
Passengers arriving in San Francisco were screened aboard ship and separated by nationality. Europeans and first-class passengers were generally permitted immediate entrance to the city. Asians—along with some other immigrant groups (notably Mexicans and Russians) as well as those thought to require medical quarantine —were ferried to Angel Island.
Lest we think that only far right despots used Angel Island as a prison, there is ample evidence that “progressive” Democrats had a hand it in too. FDR is arguably the most obvious example. Under his administration, Japanese-American citizens – not undocumented immigrants – were stripped of their property and held here before being relocated to remote inland camps far from our Bay.
Finally, if Trump wishes to rid Alcatraz of National Park protections, prominent San Franciscans suggest that the property should be converted into a world class casino run by the it original occupants – Native Americans.
This idea was floated about in the last century before being scuttled as “too costly.”
But ferry riders tell us that if anyone can create a gaming empire out of pure nothing, “The Donald” can.