Reopening Alcatraz not a new idea
By: Dinah Voyles Pulver
USA Today
..... For those who've seen any of the dozen of movies featuring Alcatraz over the years, just hearing the word conjures up images of the 22-acre island in San Francisco Bay and its notorious former prison, which closed down more than 60 years ago.
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Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage teamed up there in the 1996 movie "The Rock." It was seen in 1979's Escape From Alcatraz" with Clint Eastwood and was portrayed in the final battle scenes of "X Man: Last Stand" in 2006.
..... So when President Donald Trump dropped the words "REBUILD AND OPEN ALCATRAZ" in a truth Social post just before 7 PM. on May 4, [2025] it quickly garnered attention.
..... "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 said in the Truth Social post. "No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets. That is why, today, [05/04/2025] 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."
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"It's a symbol of law and order," Trump said in response to a question from Reuters' reporter on Sunday [05/04/2025] night about what gave him the idea.
..... "It's an idea I had," Trump told reporters later in the evening, specifying a potential sue in immigration detention: "So many of these radicalized judges, they want to have trials for ... every single person that's in our country illegally."
..... "It's not the first time the idea has been floated to sue the aging facilities to house detained immigrates. When the maximum security prison was closed by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1963, the federal Bureau of Prisons stated it was too expensive to continue operating.
..... At the time, it needed $3 million to $5 million in restoration and maintenance, the bureau said - roughly 431 million to $52 million in today's [05/04/2025] dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator. Alcatraz was three times more expensive to operate than any other federal prions, primarily because of its physical isolation and lack of fresh water.
..... Even at its maximum capacity, Alcatraz would only have held 336 inmates, but its population never reached more than about 300, according to research in a 1994 paper published by the Oxford University Press.
..... Alcatraz was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
..... At the moment, the site is a popular national historicist destination, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It attracts $60 million in revenue for park partners and attracts 1.6 million visitors a year, according to the National Park Service.
..... Even so, in 1981, Alcatraz Island was one of 14 sites evaluated as the Reagan administration searched for a location to hold 10,000 to 20,000 Cuban detainees during the Mariel Boat lift. the site was rejected because of its lack of utilities, historic nature and popularity as a tourist destination.
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Nor are the president's comments the first time this year [2025] that Alcatraz has come up among the Trump family. The president's son Donald Trump Jr. said on X in January [2025] responding to a post about sending criminal undocumented immigrates to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: "Maybe we should also reopen Alcatraz?"
A grim history
..... One national parks website refers to Alcatraz as "the grimmest symbol in North America of the hand of justice." It once served as a place where the Indigenous Ohlone and Coast Niwok tribes would isolate people who broke tribal law. In 1775. Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Alaya is said to have named it "Isla de los Alcatraces," which translates to Island of the Pelicans.
..... Alcatraz was the site of the first lighthouse on the West Coast and became the first navigations lamp on the west Coast in 1854. The island was the home of a military fort during the California gold rush. It began holding prisoners during the Civil War, and eventually opened as a maximum security prison in 1934.
..... The prison gained notoriety because its prisoners included infamous criminals such as Al Capone and "Machine Gun Kelly. It was not3ed for holding "Incorrigibles" for punishment and incarceration, including those who had been a management problem in other persons according to histories form the National Park Service and the Bureau of Prisons.
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It's not clear whether anyone ever successfully escaped from Alcatraz. Over 29 years, 36 men tired. The fate of three men who escaped inn 1962 remains a mystery, according to the FBI.
..... Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin hatched an escape plan over months, including creating dummy heads made of plast4er and real hair to make it appear they were in their beds. They used a homemade drill made form a vacuum cleaner to loosen air vents in their cells, then left the prison through a utility corridor and launched a raft into the bay.
..... That's were the trail went cold, and during a 17-year investigation, the FBI was never able to determine if the men had survived.