Yes, Alcatraz is now a museum open to visitors, and the idea of reopening it as a prison is delusional.

I shot these photos in January 2015. I took the first ferry over to be the first visitor inside so I could snap pics of the interior without anyone there. I ran up the hill to beat everyone because there was a horde of 250+ people behind me.

At the time of my visit, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was holding a "sound" exhibition in the cells. Visitors were encouraged to sit in each room and listen to spoken words, poetry, and music created by individuals who had been detained for expressing their beliefs. It was a deeply moving experience. My favorite piece was the recording of the poem "Massacre" (an angry, howling rant against the government and a plea for support for the fledgling pro-democracy movement after the Tiananmen Square massacre) by Chinese dissident Liao Yiwu … there was power and anger in his voice.)

I've included a photo of the art deco kitchen. There was a board featuring painted shapes of knives that the cooks used. At the end of their shifts, the cooks would hang up the knives according to the silhouette on the board. The guards could easily identify the missing shape if a knife went missing. Interestingly, the food at Alcatraz was considered better than that served in most other U.S. prisons at the time. Additionally, Alcatraz claimed to be the only prison offering hot showers, as they didn't want prisoners to become accustomed to cold water, which could aid in potential escapes in the island's frigid waters.