Federal Bureau of Prisons has a $3 billion repair backlog. Now it’s expected to reopen Alcatraz too
Eleven -an inmate death for less than two months. More than 4,000 vacant staff. A $ 3 billion backlog repair.
And now, a stunning directive from President Donald Trump for the Federal Bureau of Prisons “rebuild, and open Alcatraz!” – The well -known -known penitentiary On an island in San Francisco Bay last held prisoners more than 60 years ago.
Although the Bureau of Prisons insists on short staff, chronic violence and crumbling infrastructure in its current facilities, Trump relies on the agency to fulfill its vision of rebooting the flawless inevitable prison known to pop films and cultures as “The Rock.”
Trump declaredIn a social media post that a “big -raised and rebuilt” Alcatraz will accept the “most unlucky and violent offenders.” It will “serve as a symbol of law, order, and justice,” he wrote in the fact that social reality.
The newly appointed Bureau of Prisons director William K. Marshall III said on Monday that the agency was “diligently pursuing all the ways to support and enforce the President's agenda” and he ordered “an immediate assessment to determine our needs and next steps.”
“The USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We hope to restore the strong symbol of law, order, and justice,” Marshall said in a statement, citing Trump's post. “We are actively working on our law enforcement and other federal partners to restore this vital mission.”
Alcatraz used to be a pattern
Alcatraz, a 22-acre (8.9 hectare) islet with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Skyline, was a former crown of federal prison system and home of some of the country's prominent criminals, including gangsters Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
But repair and supply costs forced the Department of Justice to close the prison in 1963, just 29 years after it opened, and the Bureau of Prisons had long replaced Alcatraz with modern penitentiaries, including a maximum-scurity prison in Florence, Colorado.
The former and perhaps future penitentiary is a popular tourist attraction and a national historic landmark. It is regulated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which means the Bureau of Prisons can be for an interagency tug of war if it is trying to wrestle the island's control.
Trump's Alcatraz Directive is another challenge for the Bureau of Prisons as it struggles to resolve long -term problems while addressing the president's priorities in siege and immigrant prevention. The agency's mission, such as re -defined under Trump, includes taking thousands of immigration detainees under an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security.
Problems with the Bureau of Prisons have exceeded administrations and facilities.
An ongoingAssociated Press Investigationhas been uncovered deep, previously unscrupulous flaws within the Bureau of Prisons over the past few years, includingextensive criminal activity by employeesDose -DoSenangescapedthe free flow of firearms, drugs and other contraband, andSeriously not annoyingThat prevents responses to emergencies.
Last year, President Joe Biden signed a strengthening of agency administration law. It remains the largest agency of the Department of Justice, with more than 30,000 employees, 155,000 inmates and an annual budget of nearly $ 8 billion, but Trump management costs have removed some pay bonuses that have been credited to the maintenance and attraction of new staff.
That has resulted in a long -term debeat for some workers and the ongoing use of a policy known as enlargement, in which prison nurses, cooks, teachers and other workers are forced to guard the prisoners.
The infrastructure is also buckling. A Bureau of Prisons official in Congress said at a hearing in February that more than 4,000 beds inside the system – the equivalent of at least two entire prisons – was not available due to dangerous conditions such as leaking or failing roofs, mold, asbestos or lead.
Deaths occurred the federal prison system
Since mid -March, 11 federal prison prison have been killed. With themDavid Knezevicha 37 -year -old Florida businessman found dead on April 28th at asuspected suicideIn a federal jail in Miami. He awaits the trial on the charges he seized and killed his estranged wife in Spain.
And on April 24, inmate Ramadhan Jaabir Justice was killed in a federal penitentiary fight in Pollock, Louisiana, where he delivered nearly 11-year sentences for a belief related to an armed robbery.
As Trump ordered Alcatraz Sunday's reopening, correction officials in the same Miami jail were fighting to prevent the spread of tuberculosis and COVID-19, which separates the prisoners after they have checked the positive for the diseases. Last month, detailed immigrations to the facility released a sprinkle of fire and flooded a holding cell during a lengthy process of use.
Meanwhile, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Alcatraz, the federal institution of correction in Dublin, California, was sitting for more than a year after the Bureau of Prisons that prisoners removed it at the end of the intense sexual abuse of employees, including the warden.
In December, the agency was made permanent closingand idle the six prison camps across the countryTo meet “significant challenges, including a critical staff deficiency, crumbling infrastructure and limited budget resources.”
While Trump overflows with Alcatraz as a paragon of the beloved past of the federal prison system, other facilities have stood as reminders of its recent problems.
They include the federal prison in Manhattan, which remains uninvited after Jeffrey Epstein's suicide there in 2019 exposed deep flaws in its operations, and a disturbed federal lockup in Brooklyn, where23 prisoners will be chargedIn recent months there were crimes that came from smuggling weapons in a bag of Doritos until it was stabbed last month by a man convicted of killing hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
