The former federal prison on Alcatraz Island, now a national park, is one of the top tourist destinations in the San Francisco Bay area. Visitors from around the world come to see the place for themselves and reflect on the realities of incarceration. The subject of dozens of books, films, and headlines, since 1934 Alcatraz has loomed large in America’s vision of itself – and in the world’s imagination of America. When I saw the American flag reflected in the window of the Administration Building along with a ghostly visitor, I felt it was an appropriate image to summarize what Alcatraz has come to mean for present and perhaps future generations.