US President Donald Trump has ordered the re-opening of the former prison and historic tourist attraction Alcatraz as a penitentiary, according to a post he made on social media on 4 May 2025.
The small island facility that lies approximately 2km off the San Francisco coast once hosted a military prison and became a federal detention centre in 1934. For 29 years it operated as a prison, handling a total of 1,576 inmates. Surrounded by cold, shark-infested ocean currents, it became synonymous with harsh conditions and impossible escape – though movies have been made about attempts and dozens of successful escapes and reached the water were made.
Closed in 1963 and opened as a public attraction a decade later, it became a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and has for years been a popular tourist spot, drawing between 1.2 and 1.4 million visitors annually.
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. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate… pic.twitter.com/u1jOCMXeW5
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2025
False claim that “Nobody has ever escaped”
But now, Trump has said Alcatraz should become a functioning prison again, as “a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.” When asked to give further details about the idea on 5 May, Trump said inaccurately: “Nobody ever escaped.” He went on to describe an escape attempt that featured in the film “Escape from Alcatraz” which involved a person’s “clothing rather badly ripped up. It was a lot of shark bites, a lot of problems.”
As a result of Trump’s order, William K. Marshall III, director of the Bureau of Prisons, said in a statement the state of the facility would be immediately assessed, repeating Trump’s words about its symbolism and declaring: “We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission.”
President Trump's decision to re-open Alcatraz is a brilliant move.
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) May 5, 2025
Alcatraz will serve as a prison for our WORST thugs in the United States. pic.twitter.com/su0B0s0A9N
Unsafe working environment
However, experts have pointed out that the prison was shut down due to the expense of island operations that necessitated shipping all supplies. Over 60 years after its decommissioning, many of the buildings are now dilapidated and unsafe and would entail an outlay of millions of dollars to ensure the well-being of not only prisoners but the officers who would be required to work there.
In addition, at most the island can contain only a few hundred prisoners, only a tiny proportion of the more than 150,000 federal detainees across the US, making any repairs or repurposing likely to be an inefficient use of public money.
“Not a serious proposal”
What’s more, San Francisco can ill afford to lose the $60 million in revenue that the National Park Service Alcatraz generates. The City Controller Office has projected a budget deficit of $817 million for fiscal years 2025–2026 and a nearly $1 billion for fiscal years 2027–2028, not an unusual situation for US cities post-pandemic, but one which the non-profit Spur notes is “the largest expected deficit in the city’s history” and that’s not taking into account further federal and state level cuts in the offing.
The well-known Trump critic and local California lawmaker, Nancy Pelosi, writing on X, rejected President Trump’s idea as “not a serious one.” Her words were echoed by city mayor Daniel Lurie, while Rafael Mandelman, president of the Board of Supervisors, went further, dismissing the idea as “typically absurd.”
