Here's what DOGE ought to be asking:(1) How much will it cost to refurbish and rebuild Alcatraz after being closed since 1963 due to high operational costs?
(2) Is it cheaper to maintain prisoners in our existing supermax style of prison, or is shipping food & supplies & guards out to Alcatraz cheaper?
I don't know the answers to these questions, but tRump's silence on them suggests the answers don't support re-opening Alcatraz.
Oh, wait, the Bureau of Prisons has this about the cost of Alcatraz:
On March 21, 1963, USP Alcatraz closed after 29 years of operation. It did not close because of the disappearance of Morris and the Anglins (the decision to close the prison was made long before the three disappeared), but because the institution was too expensive to continue operating. An estimated $3-5 million was needed just for restoration and maintenance work to keep the prison open. That figure did not include daily operating costs - Alcatraz was nearly three times more expensive to operate than any other Federal prison (in 1959 the daily per capita cost at Alcatraz was $10.10 compared with $3.00 at USP Atlanta). The major expense was caused by the physical isolation of the island - the exact reason islands have been used as prisons throughout history. This isolation meant that everything (food, supplies, water, fuel...) had to be brought to Alcatraz by boat. For example, the island had no source of fresh water, so nearly one million gallons of water had to be barged to the island each week. The Federal Government found that it was more cost-effective to build a new institution than to keep Alcatraz open.
https://www.bop.gov/about/history/alcatraz.jsp
