THE US National Parks Service is considering allowing the construction of an upscale hotel on Alcatraz Island, the infamous high-security gaol** familiarly known as "The Rock". If the plan goes ahead, it would provide an unusual venue for event planners.
The island regularly attracts 1.5 million visitors a year, making it San Francisco's second largest paid-for tourist attraction after the city's cable cars. The Parks Service is canvassing public opinion on the hotel scheme, which is one of a number of ideas for funding the upkeep of the prison buildings.
According to USA Today, guests would stay - voluntarily this time - in the former prison officers' quarters. Now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the infamous federal penitentiary closed in 1963, having been "home" to, among others, Al Capone and "Birdman" Robert Stroud.
** in sensible English terms, a jail - not the space on a football pitch currently patrolled, for the English National team, by "Teflon" James