Alcatraz was closed because shipping fresh water across the bay made it too expensive
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was shuttered in 1963 primarily because the logistical nightmare of transporting fresh water to the island made its daily operating costs three times higher than mainland prisons.
Alcatraz Island lacked a natural source of fresh water, forcing the federal government to barge nearly one million gallons of water across the San Francisco Bay every week. By 1963, these logistical hurdles drove daily inmate costs to $10.10, the equivalent of roughly $100 today. In contrast, mainland federal prisons operated at just $3 per inmate daily during the same period.
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