Thread: Trump says he’s going to reopen Alcatraz prison. Doing so would be difficult and cost

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Trump says he’s going to reopen Alcatraz prison. Doing so would be difficult and costly

Videos at the page link Trump says he'll reopen Alcatraz, but doing so would be difficult and costly | AP News

1 of 6 | President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.BY JILL COLVIN AND MICHAEL R. SISAK

Updated 9:44 AM EDT, May 5, 2025

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NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.
In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, “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.”
“That is why, today,” he said, “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.”

Trump’s directive to rebuild and reopen the long-shuttered penitentiary was the latest salvo in his effort to overhaul how and where federal prisoners and immigration detainees are locked up. But such a move would likely be an expensive and challenging proposition. The prison was closed in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.

AP AUDIO: Trump says he’s going to reopen Alcatraz prison. Doing so would be difficult and costly
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports President Trump wants to resurrect a legendary prison.

Audio Trump says he'll reopen Alcatraz, but doing so would be difficult and costly | AP News

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Bringing the facility up to modern-day standards would require massive investments at a time when the Bureau of Prisons has been shuttering prisons for similar infrastructure issues.

The prison — infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it — was known as the “The Rock” and housed some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including gangster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
It has long been part of the cultural imagination and has been the subject of numerous movies, including “The Rock” starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.

Still in the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI. Nearly all were caught or didn’t survive the attempt.
The fate of three particular inmates — John Anglin, his brother Clarence and Frank Morris — is of some debate and was dramatized in the 1979 film “Escape from Alcatraz” starring Clint Eastwood.
Alcatraz Island is now a major tourist site that is operate by the National Park Service and is a designated National Historic Landmark.

Trump, returning to the White House on Sunday night after a weekend in Florida, said he’d come up with the idea because of frustrations with “radicalized judges” who have insisted those being deported receive due process. Alcatraz, he said, has long been a “symbol of law and order. You know, it’s got quite a history.”

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2 of 6 | A bird flies above Alcatraz Island on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the agency “will comply with all Presidential Orders.” The spokesperson did not immediately answer questions from The Associated Press regarding the practicality and feasibility of reopening Alcatraz or the agency’s role in the future of the former prison given the National Park Service’s control of the island.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat whose district includes the island, questioned the feasibility of reopening the prison after so many years. “It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on X.
The island serves as a veritable time machine to a bygone era of corrections. The Bureau of Prisons currently has 16 penitentiaries performing the same high-security functions as Alcatraz, including its maximum security facility in Florence, Colorado, and the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is home to the federal death chamber.
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 U.S. prisoners to the Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.
The Bureau of Prisons has faced myriad crises in recent years and has been subjected to increased scrutiny after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide at a federal jail in New York City in 2019. An AP investigation uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons. AP reporting has disclosed widespread criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including assaults and suicides.



3 of 6 | A building stands on Alcatraz Island on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)



4 of 6 | President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after disembarking Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

The AP’s investigation also exposed rampant sexual abuse at a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the agency after AP reporting spotlighted its many flaws.
At the same time, the Bureau of Prisons is operating in a state of flux — with a recently installed new director and a redefined mission that includes taking in thousands of immigration detainees at some of its prisons and jails under an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security. The agency last year closed several facilities, in part to cut costs, but is also in the process of building a new prison in Kentucky.
___

Sisak reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Gary Fields in Washington, Aamer Madhani in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Michael Balsamo in New York contributed to this report.



5 of 6 | Alcatraz Island is pictured on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)



6 of 6 | President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)




Trump says he'll reopen Alcatraz, but doing so would be difficult and costly | AP News

Trump Directs DOJ To Reopen Alcatraz

By William Teach May 5, 2025 – 6:45 am

Oh, yeah, this is creating Category 5 Moonbattery




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TRUMP: "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."




7:13 PM · May 4, 2025

(San Francisco Standard) President Donald Trump says he wants to turn Alcatraz Island — a museum and tourist destination for decades — back into a federal prison.

“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,” he wrote on Truth Social. “No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets.”
Created in 1934, the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary held some of America’s most famous criminals, such as Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly, until it shut down in 1963 due to high operating costs and structural damage.
Given its remote location and the cold waters around it, escape from the prison was nearly impossible — and Alcatraz gained the reputation of being the highest security lockup in the country.

Right now it is a visitors center via the Nation Parks Service.

(The Hill) The Bureau of Prisons notes on its website that “USP [United States Penitentiary] Alcatraz closed after 29 years of operation” due to soaring costs.
“An estimated $3-5 million was needed just for restoration and maintenance work to keep the prison open. That figure did not include daily operating costs — Alcatraz was nearly three times more expensive to operate than any other Federal prison,” the bureau says.

It would cost a hell of a lot more now. And, knowing the government, it would take 15 years to get it back open. It’s rusted, the walls are falling apart, it’s decrepit. You would have to really tear it all down. Getting everything out and bringing stuff in would be difficult and expensive. Getting water and power in would be incredibly difficult. A lot of people actually escaped. Probably be better starting fresh using an island off the coast of Alaska.
But, I suspect this is more about winding up Democrats.

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Alcatraz Island suddenly shuts for tourists weeks after Trump demands $150M to reopen it as infamous prison

California Governor Gavin Newsom previously said that President Trump’s plans resembled the ‘substance’ surrounding Alcatraz: ‘fog’

Owen Scott Tuesday 21 April 2026 16:45 BST

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Trump hits out at judges as he explains Alcatraz reopening order

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Alcatraz Island has abruptly closed its doors to tourists just weeks after President Trump demanded over $150 million to reopen the infamous prison. ​
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary - which sits in the water near San Francisco - closed for good as an operating prison in 1963 and now welcomes around 1.2 million visitors per year, according to the National Park Service. ​Now, on the NPS’s website, an alert says that the closure began on Monday and will last until Friday.​
“Access to the island is temporarily closed for dock repair,” the warning reads. “All scheduled tours have been refunded.

​In an email obtained by SFGATE, Joshua Winchell, the park’s communications chief, said that the closure was “planned” and “pre-scheduled.”​ The work will be carried out “specifically to repair and inspect the dock pilings.”​
The Trump administration has long expressed interest in reopening a prison on Alcatraz Island, and the White House released a 2027 budget proposal earlier this year that seeks $152 million to restore the facility.

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Alcatraz Island has been abruptly closed to tourists amid President Trump’s plans to reopen the site as a prison (Getty)
​In May 2025, the president lauded the prison’s infamous reputation on Truth Social and suggested housing “vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society” in a reopened prison on the island. ​

“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,” his post read.
“We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally.”​

California Governor Gavin Newsom tore into the idea at the time, claiming that nothing about the plans “makes any sense.”
​“I don't know if he's watching 'The Rock' or what inspired this,” Newsom told CBS Sacramento. “I mean, you can't even come up with a more colossally bad fiscal idea. Nothing about this makes any sense.”​

open image in gallery

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and former Attorney General Pam Bondi visited the island last year (X/@AGPamBondi)
Newsom went on to claim that Trump’s plan has “the form and substance of the stuff that flows in and out of the bay over Alcatraz every day: fog.”​

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also described the proposal as “stupid” and an “insult to the intelligence of the American people,” in a Facebook post.​
In July 2025, then Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited the facility to investigate the possibility of reopening the site.

Alcatraz closed in 1963 because of high operational costs, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The facility was three times as expensive to operate as other federal prisons because of its isolation on an island. Because of its location, all supplies had to be brought by boat, including nearly 1 million gallons of water per week.
The Independent has contacted the National Park Service for comment.

Alcatraz Island suddenly shuts for tourists weeks after Trump demands $150M to reopen infamous prison | The Independent