President Donald Trump announced that he ordered his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the former sadly famous prison on a Californian island that is difficult to access San Francisco, closed for over 60 years.
In a message published on Sunday evening on his site Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote: “For too long, America was plagued by vicious, violent and repeat offenders, the lie of society, which will never contribute only to misery and suffering. When we were a more serious nation, in the past, we did not hesitate to enclose the most dangerous criminals and keep them away from any person likely to harm them. This is how it must be. “
“This is why, today,” he explained. I ask the prisons office, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, the FBI and internal security, to reopen an Alcatraz prison considerably enlarged and rebuilt, to accommodate the most ruthless and violent offenders in America.
Donald Trump’s directive to rebuild and reopen this penitentiary, which has long been closed, was the latest of his attempt to reform the conditions and the place of incarceration of federal prisoners and migrants. But such a measure would probably prove to be expensive and complex.
The prison was closed in 1963 due to the dilapidation of the infrastructure and high costs of repair and supply of the island establishment, because everything, from fuel to food, was to be sent by boat.
Modern standards would require massive investments, at a time when the prisons office firm prisons for similar infrastructure problems.
The prison, sadly famous for its elusive escape due to the strong ocean currents and cold water from the Pacific around it, was nicknamed “The Rock” and has hosted some of the most notorious criminals in the country, including the Gangster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kellly.
She has long been part of the cultural imagination and has been the subject of many films, including “The Rock” with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. Still in 29 years of existence, 36 men have attempted 14 distinct escapes, according to the FBI. Almost all have been arrested or did not survive their attempt.
The fate of three detainees in particular – John Anglin, his brother Clarence and Frank Morris – is debated and was staged in the film “L’Escadé d’Alcatraz” of 1979, with Clinton Eastwood.
The island of Alcatraz is today a major tourist site, managed by the service of national parks and classified as a national historic monument.
Back at the White House Sunday evening after a weekend in Florida, Donald Trump explained that this idea had come to him because of his frustration in the face of “radicalized judges” who insisted that the expelled people benefit from a regular procedure. Alcatraz, he explained, has long been a “symbol of public order.” You know, it’s a city that has a whole story. “
A spokesperson for the prisons office said in a statement that the agency “will comply with all presidential decrees”.
The spokesperson did not immediately answer questions from the Associated Press (AP) concerning the feasibility of the reopening of Alcatraz, nor the role of the agency in the future of the former prison, taking into account the control of the island by the service of national parks.
The former president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a Californian democrat whose constituency includes the island, questioned the feasibility of the reopening of the prison after so many years.
“It is now a very popular national park and a major tourist attraction. The president’s proposal is not serious, ”she wrote on X.
The island is a real time machine, transported to a bygone era of the penitentiary system. The prisons office currently has 16 penitentiaries fulfilling the same high security functions as Alcatraz, including his high security establishment in Florence, in Colorado, and the American High Earth Penitentiary, in Indiana, which houses the Chamber of Federal Death.
This decision comes as Donald Trump is in conflict with justice, seeking to send members of accused gangs in a high security prison in Salvador, without regular procedure.
Donald Trump also mentioned the legally doubtful idea of sending certain American federal prisoners to the detention center for terrorists (CECOT).
President Trump also ordered the opening of a detention center in Guantanamo, Cuba, which can accommodate up to 30,000 of those he called “worse foreign criminals”.
– Sisak has carried out its report from Philadelphia. Journalists from the Associated Press Gary Fields in Washington, Aamer Madhani in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Michael Balsamo in New York contributed to this report.
