The Alcatraz of the East?

Sing Sing, the notorious prison where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed as spies, could become a lucrative tourist attraction. Officials in Westchester County, N.Y., are seeking state funding for a museum in the prison’s old power house, which would be connected by tunnel to a cellblock no longer in use, said county Planning Commissioner Jerry Mulligan.

“It could be the Alcatraz of the East,” Mulligan said, referring to the museum at California’s infamous prison.

Studies show a tourist center at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility could lure 150,000 visitors a year, he said, at a start-up cost of about $5 million.

The dark, imposing prison, which today holds about 1,745 inmates, overlooks the Hudson River in Ossining, N.Y., about 30 miles north of New York City.