Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison
By JILL COLVIN and MICHAEL R SISAK NEW YORK President Donald Trump says he is directing his regime 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 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 majority of dangerous criminals and keep them far away from anyone they could harm That s the way it s supposed to be That is why in current times he explained I am directing the Bureau of Prisons together with the Department of Justice FBI and Homeland Safety to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ to house America s largest part 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 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 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 a few of the nation s preponderance 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 years it was open men attempted 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 particular debate and was dramatized in the film Escape from Alcatraz starring Clinton Eastwood Alcatraz Island is now a major tourist site that is operate by the National Park Amenity and is a designated National Historic Landmark Trump returning to the White House on Sunday night after a weekend in Florida mentioned he d come up with the idea because of frustrations with radicalized judges who have insisted those being deported receive due process Alcatraz he declared has long been a symbol of law and order You know it s got quite a history A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons revealed in a announcement that the agency will comply with all Presidential Orders The spokesperson did not forthwith 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 System 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 a multitude of 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 now has penitentiaries performing the same high-security functions as Alcatraz including its maximum precaution 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 particular federal U S prisoners to the Terrorism Confinement Center known as CECOT Trump has also directed the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay Cuba to hold up to of what he has labeled the worst criminal aliens Related Articles Trump in a new interview says he doesn t know if he backs due process rights Asylum-seeking Honduran mother is still sitting in an Aurora ICE center six months after being detained Federal attorneys dispute Jeanette Vizguerra s right to claim a First Amendment violation in detention challenge Trump s first days Steamrolling establishment strong-arming allies and igniting deal wars What s at vulnerability with cuts to federal humanities funding in Colorado Book awards library hours educational guidance and more The Bureau of Prisons has faced myriad crises in modern years and has been subjected to increased scrutiny after Jeffrey Epstein s suicide at a federal jail in New York City in An AP inspection 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 The AP s study 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 multiple flaws At the same time the Bureau of Prisons is operating in a state of flux with a in the past few days installed new director and a redefined mission that includes taking in thousands of immigration detainees at various of its prisons and jails under an agreement with the Department of Homeland Safety 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 published 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 assessment
