Donald Trump has said he is directing the administration to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on an island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.
California lawmakers called the idea “absurd on its face” and part of the US president’s strategy of political distraction. Other officials pointed to the closure of the prison complex in 1963, known for its brutal conditions, due to operational expense and the high number of (unsuccessful) escape attempts.
“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than 60 years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The president’s proposal is not a serious one,” California Democratic congresswomen Nancy Pelosi said.
In a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday evening, Trump wrote: “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
He added: “That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
But the directive received a scathing reception from critics, especially California Democrats. Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator representing San Francisco, posted that Trump “wants to turn Alcatraz into a domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay”.
“In addition to being deeply unhinged, this is an attack on the rule of law. Putting aside that Alcatraz is a museum & tourist attraction, this is both nuts & terrifying,” he added, calling the proposal “absurd on its face”.
A response also came from the office of the state’s governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom.
“Looks like it’s Distraction day again in Washington, DC,” said Izzy Gardon, spokesperson for Newsom.
Civil rights attorney Scott Hechinger concurred, posting on X and referencing the White House budget proposal issued last Friday: “Alcatraz. No more than a sensational distraction from this: Trump just cut nearly $1 billion from bipartisan, proven, successful anti-crime, violence prevention programs around the country.”
Instead of preventing crime before people are harmed, Hechinger added, Trump had “made America substantially less safe. And now he’s stomping & parading around with big words and sensational capital letters about a wasteful reopening of a domestic torture complex that will never actually happen & do nothing to keep America safer … what a dangerous joke.”
The Bureau of Prisons said the prison, which was open for only 29 years, had “no source of fresh water, so nearly one million gallons of water had to be barged to the island each week. The federal government found that it was more effective to build a new institution than to keep Alcatraz open.”
Social media commentator Brian Krassenstein, who did a tour of the facility recently, called it “the dumbest proposal” he had heard.
“At least $175-250m just to shore up crumbling concrete, retrofit for earthquakes, and install 21st-century security tech. Operating costs that never stop bleeding. Everything, water, food, fuel, must be barged in, and raw sewage barged out. That pushes the annual budget to 3× a comparable mainland prison, roughly $70 – 75 M every single year,” he wrote on X.
Trump’s directive to rebuild and reopen the long-shuttered penitentiary is the latest salvo in his effort to overhaul how and where federal prisoners and immigration detainees are locked up.
But such a move would probably be expensive and challenging. The prison was closed in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and the high cost of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.
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Bringing the facility up to modern-day standards would require massive investment at a time when the Federal Bureau of Prisons has been shuttering prisons for similar infrastructure issues.
The island is now a major tourist site that is operated by the National Park Service and is a designated national historic landmark.
The prison – which was considered escape-proof due to the strong currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it – was known as “the Rock” and housed some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
In the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI. Nearly all were caught or did not survive.
The fates of three inmates – the brothers John and Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris – are the subject of some debate, with their story dramatised in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the agency “will comply with all presidential orders”. They did not immediately answer questions from the Associated Press regarding the practicality and feasibility of reopening Alcatraz or the agency’s possible role in the future of the former prison given the National Park Service’s control of the island.
The order comes as Trump has been clashing with the courts as he tries to send accused gang members to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, without due process. Trump has also floated the legally dubious idea of sending some federal US prisoners to the Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot.
Trump also directed the opening of a detention centre at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 of what he has called the “worst criminal aliens”.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
