President Trump said Sunday that he was ordering the FBI to reopen the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, the historic prison on an island off of San Francisco that has been closed since 1963.
“REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “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,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Once fortified with the goal of becoming the world’s most secure prisons, the government closed Alcatraz because it was too expensive to run — costing three times as much as most other federal prisons.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi in a statement posted Sunday to social media said that Trump’s proposal “is not a serious one.”
“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago,” she wrote. “It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction.”
The federal penitentiary was in operation for less than 30 years. It opened in August 1934, and housed notorious criminals including Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly, who had a history of prior escapes from prison.
In 1962, three of Alcatraz’s prisoners escaped — John Anglin, his brother Clarence, and Frank Morris, who planted dummies in their beds, climbed out via rooftop ventilators, and launched a raft with the aims of crossing the Bay. They were never found, and many believe they did not survive.
Who controls Alcatraz?
As of 1972, Alcatraz has been owned by the National Park Service. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which manages the island, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Can Trump really rebuild?
Alcatraz is on the National Register of Historic Places. If Trump is serious about rebuilding a prison on Alcatraz, it would likely have to remove its designation.
What’s on the island now?
Since 1973, it has been open to the public, operating as a tourist destination and a museum looking back at its time as a federal penitentiary. The museum welcomes more than 1.4 million visitors each year.
The National Park Service has been in the midst of redesigning the museum and visitor experience, with the launch slated for later this summer, according to a social media post by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Vice President Sean Kelley.
The annual Escape from Alcatraz Island is hosted on the island each year, which requires a 1.5-mile swim through the Bay’s choppy waters to the San Francisco shore.
The island is also popular with birdwatchers — it hosts over 20,000 birds, including murres, grebes and ducks.
Where do California’s prisoners go now?
The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates three high-security penitentiaries in California, and seven medium-security federal correctional institutes.