“REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ! 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,” wrote U.S. President Donald Trump on Truth Social, Sunday May 4 2025. NBC News reports that he even went on to state that he was ordering the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation , and the Department of Homeland Security to reopen a “substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
According to CNN, Alcatraz was originally built in the 1850’s by the U.S Army in order to protect the San Francisco Bay from foreign invasion and was equipped with major artillery in order to ensure its success. During the Civil War, when Confederate raiders entered San Francisco, Alcatraz was there to help protect the historic city. It became the most heavily fortified military base on the West Coast. When violent crime soared in the 1920’s and 1930’s, the US Army turned Alcatraz over to the Department of Justice where, in 1934, it was turned into a “maximum security, minimum privilege” prison for the country’s most treacherous criminals. Alcatraz was also used as a symbol to citizens throughout the country that the Department of Justice was cracking down on crime and was willing to go great distances in order to keep the country safe.
Alcatraz remained a prison for 29 years where it became famous for its numerous escape attempts. Over the years, Alcatraz saw 14 escape attempts between 36 men. However, the most successful occurred in 1962 when Frank Morris and his brothers John and Clarence Anglin supposedly vanished from their cells overnight. Investigators found that they had been working for months, using broken spoons to dig through the ventilation ducts in the back of their cells. The brothers created lifelike heads made of plaster and real human hair to trick the guards before making their escape through the ventilator shafts up to the roofs. It is believed that they likely drowned in the rough waters surrounding the prison as they were never seen again, no one knows for sure since no bodies were ever found. Their escape is dramatized in Clint Eastwood’s 1979 film “Escape from Alcatraz.”
Over the years, Alcatraz fell into disrepair and eventually, in 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy closed the prison following a Department of Justice report stating it would cost three to five million dollars to restore it. According to USA Today, due to its unique location, it costs three times more to maintain it than any other prison. But its history does not end there. In 1981, Ronald Reagan was searching for a place to keep the 10,000 to 20,000 Cuban detainees during the Mariel Boatlift. Alcatraz was considered but it was later decided against as it did not possess the necessary utilities to hold that many people. Today, Alcatraz is a tourist hot spot that attracts over one million visitors and over $60 million dollars each year for the city of San Francisco. NPR states that it is currently a museum and a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, a national park administered by the National Park Services.
There have been many mixed reactions over Trump’s announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a high-security prison. ABC News mentioned that House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, shot down Trump’s proposal posting on X that “The President’s proposal is not a serious one.” While Elizabeth Neumann, a former DHS deputy chief of staff who researched many of Trump’s plans in his first term states that “usually it gets dropped.” In a different NBC News article, David Widner, nephew to the Anglin brother, reported that “With the right kind of money, it could be redone.” William K. Marshall III, director of the Bureau of Prisons, released a statement stating that the agency “will vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda.”
The historic landmark has been popular for almost a century, catching the attention of the public curious about the “maximum security, minimum privilege” prison. This new announcement has brought attention once again to the unique prison. President Trump has always wanted to make a show of U.S. power and control. By reopening Alcatraz, he is displaying that power, not only to the rest of the world, but to heinous criminals and the public. This show of strict power has many worried about what the future of the country entails for everyone.
