On Sunday (May 4), President Donald Trump took to social media and announced plans to reopen Alcatraz, the island prison in the San Francisco Bay that closed down in the 1960s. As expected, the internet was flooded with criticism and concern, but is he really considering turning the now-tourist attraction back into a prison?
Alcatraz — The Rock
Located 1.25 miles away from shore on a 22-acre rock, Alcatraz was built between 1910 and 1912, first as an Army military prison; later, in 1934, it became a maximum-security federal prison. It housed some of America’s most famous prisoners, including Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, the infamous “Birdman of Alcatraz” Robert Stroud, and “Public Enemy No. 1” Alvin Karpis. Anyone who’s taken a tour will remember walking around with headsets or earbuds, listening to recorded tapes of the inmates in their dining room or conversations held in dreary cells. If you really want the experience, you could be locked in solitary confinement for a few minutes. It’s all an eerie but interesting experience.
The Rock, as it is appropriately called, was a very effective prison with 36 men in 14 known escape attempts. One of those endeavors remains a mystery today. On June 11, 1962, brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris escaped, never to be seen or heard from again. The FBI decided the three drowned. But the questions still linger: Did they make it to shore to live undetected for the rest of their lives? Or did they drown, perhaps eaten by sharks? Their undertaking drew so much attention and speculation, it inspired the 1979 movie Escape From Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood. The prison itself was the subject of the 1996 movie The Rock with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.
However, as effective as it was keeping prisoners housed, running Alcatraz was very expensive. In 1959, daily operations cost $10.10 compared to $3.00 per prisoner at the penitentiary in Atlanta, Newsweek pointed out. The island prison was not self-sustaining; everything had to be shipped over from land. Food, fuel, and even water had to be transported by boat. Nearly 1 million gallons of water had to be delivered each week.
By the 1960s, $3 million-$5 million was needed in restoration and maintenance just so Alcatraz could remain operational. The cost was deemed too much, and The Rock closed on March 21, 1963. But that wasn’t the end of the story. In 1973, the National Parks and Services reopened the area as a tourist attraction, and it soon became one of the most popular sites to this day, drawing in about 1.6 million visitors a year, who happily pay between $45 and $100 for guided tours, generating about $60 million in annual revenue.
Reopening as a Prison
Trump has already directed the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that would hold up to 30,000 of what he called the “worst criminal aliens,” and he is reportedly considering sending some federal prisoners to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT. Now it appears Alcatraz is on his list.
“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,” Trump posted on his Truth Social site. “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 continued: “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.”
The president said he had come up with the idea because of “radicalized judges” insisting illegal immigrants who have been deported should receive due process. Alcatraz, he said, has long been a “symbol of law and order. You know, it’s got quite a history.
“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,” Trump continued. “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
The internet highway lit up with responses. Democratic strategist The Maine Wonk posted on X: “Reopening and rebuilding Alcatraz as a prison would cost approximately $235-370 million upfront and $40-60 million annually to operate. Where you at @DOGE?”
Assistant News Director at Florida’s Voice News Eric Daugherty said on the same platform: “Wow. Suddenly, every Democrat is concerned about operational costs, efficiency and the budget. Now that Trump said he wants to reopen Alcatraz prison, I am seeing FLOODS of Democrats saying ‘it’s going to be too expensive! The building materials, cleaning it up, installing new technology!’”
Daughtery continued: “Do Democrats hear themselves? They’ve been railing against DOGE for 100 days for saving us BILLIONS OF DOLLARS – not in budget cuts, but in places money should not have been spent in the first place – and they’re concerned about investing a billion dollars or so in a prison for our most heinous offenders? Unserious people?”
Another commenter on the platform, with the account name WarClandestine, said, “For those of you concerned about the supposed cost to operate Alcatraz … You fail to recognize the value of a deterrent … The small cells and harsh conditions were notorious and feared, which served as a deterrent to strike fear into criminals, and hopefully prevent them from engaging in organized crime in the first place.”
Is Trump really serious about reopening Alcatraz as a federal prison, or is this a frustrated reaction to judges on immigration issues? Or maybe, it’s a smokescreen while other activities work beneath the radar? We can’t discount it as such yet, though. Think Guantanamo Bay, for instance. However, in this author’s humble opinion, the likelihood of going through with it does not seem feasible – it is extremely expensive. Perhaps a bigger obstacle is the loss of $60 million a year for the parks and partners who run Alcatraz and the tourist money brought into the Golden State from those wanting to visit the infamous island prison.
