Overview
- The White House’s 2027 budget, released Friday, sets aside $152 million to fund the first year of planning to convert Alcatraz into a modern high-security facility.
- Congress will decide whether the planning money is approved, since no construction can begin without lawmakers’ sign-off.
- Government officials cited by Axios say the decayed complex would likely need a near-total rebuild with an estimated price tag of about $2 billion.
- Alcatraz now operates as a museum and protected bird habitat that draws roughly one million visitors each year, so any conversion would run into tourism and conservation rules.
- The prison shut in 1963 because boats had to bring water and supplies, which made operations far costlier than on the mainland and remains a core logistical hurdle today.