SAN FRANCISCO: US Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi visited the previous Alcatraz jail in San Francisco Bay on Thursday (July 17), weeks after President Donald Trump mentioned he meant to reopen the long-shuttered facility to accommodate violent offenders.
Aerial footage confirmed Bondi talking with park rangers and touring the island, which is now operated by the Nationwide Park Service as a historic website and vacationer vacation spot. Tv cameras adopted the lawyer common, who didn’t converse to reporters throughout the go to.
Trump, in Might, mentioned he had directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons, overseen by Bondi, to rebuild and reactivate Alcatraz as a functioning jail. Nonetheless, it stays unclear whether or not any formal plans have been drawn up. The administration didn’t request funds for the venture in its newest price range submission to Congress.
Bondi has not too long ago confronted criticism from some Trump supporters following the Justice Division’s choice to shut a evaluate of fabric linked to accused intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Alcatraz operated as a maximum-security federal jail from 1934 to 1963. Based on the Federal Bureau of Prisons, it was shut down resulting from excessive operational prices. The power as soon as held among the most infamous US criminals, together with gangster Al Capone.
At present, the previous jail is one in all San Francisco’s most visited landmarks.
The Trump administration has additionally dubbed a newly opened migrant detention centre within the Florida Everglades “Alligator Alcatraz,” drawing comparisons to the remoted jail island.
A spokesperson for the Justice Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark relating to Bondi’s go to.
