U.S. considers upscale hotel for infamous Alcatraz

By Amanda Beck

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The National Park Service is considering adding a hotel to Alcatraz Island, site of one of the world's most notorious prisons.

Unlike the cells afforded to inmates such as Al "Scarface" Capone, the facility would offer upscale accommodations like those now available at the Ahwahnee Hotel in California's Yosemite National Park.

"People are constantly saying they want to see more of the island," National Park Service Spokesman Rich Weideman said. "A hotel would be the ultimate experience in visitor access."

Alcatraz Island is run by the U.S. National Park Service and is already San Francisco's second most-popular tourist attraction, after its famed cable cars.

About 1.5 million people take ferries to visit the prison cellblock every year, and summer tickets sell out weeks ahead.

But many visitors say they also want to see parts of the 12-acre (5-hectare) island that are closed to the public, including wildlife areas, the room where prison guards bowled and the prison theater where gangsters watched "From Here to Eternity."

A hotel, likely built in a structure that once housed prison guards, would for the first time offer the general public 24-hour access to "the Rock" and capitalize on the park's popular night-time tours.

That's when evening fog shrouds San Francisco from view. But island visitors, like the prisoners before them, can still hear activity emanating from the city.