President Donald Trump’s law and order agenda took a new turn over the weekend when the president announced plans to reopen the historic prison Alcatraz, located on an island in San Francisco Bay, to house the country’s “most ruthless and violent” criminals.
The prison, which closed in 1963 due to extreme costs, is one of the most notorious in U.S. history, famous for failed jailbreaks, harsh conditions and several charismatic prisoners. That history has made the island a fixture of San Francisco tourism, and it is one of the more popular National Park Service sites in the country.
For the president, the original history should be revived.
Alcatraz recalls a time when the United States was “more serious” and “did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals,” Trump wrote Sunday in a post on his social media website Truth Social.
“No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets,” Trump wrote. “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.”
Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall III said his agency would “vigorously pursue” ways to implement the president’s agenda.
“I have ordered an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps,” he said in an emailed statement. “USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice. We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission.”
But rehabilitating the historic site as a modern prison could be a legally complicated and expensive challenge, say former National Park Service leaders, Democrats and conservationists.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose district includes Alcatraz Island, scoffed at the idea.
“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on the social media site X.
The U.S. Army first built a citadel on Alcatraz Island in the 1850s and used it to house military prisoners, but it wasn’t until the Department of Justice took over in 1933 that it became the “maximum security, minimum privilege” facility known today, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Alcatraz has been immortalized in Hollywood films for its harsh conditions and the presumption that its location on an island in waters populated with sharks would stave off escapes. Most of the 14 documented escape attempts from Alcatraz, involving more than 30 men, failed, though in 1962 Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin disappeared from their cells and were never found.
The prison closed the following year. Despite rumors that the disappearances were a factor, high costs were the primary driver in the shutdown, according to the Bureau of Prisons website on Alcatraz history.
By 1963, Alcatraz cost the government three times more than any other federal prison. In 1959, the daily per capita cost to run Alcatraz was $10.10, compared to $3.00 per head at a comparable federal prison in Atlanta.
Jon Jarvis, former director of the National Park Service, said he laughed when he saw the news of Trump’s plan to reopen the site as a prison.
“It would be ridiculously expensive to operate as a prison,” he said.
Jarvis said NPS poured millions into rehabilitating the Alcatraz facilities both for historic preservation and to accommodate visitors. It would cost the government yet again to try to bring it up to standard for a modern prison.
“The infrastructure is old. There is no housing for prison employees, no fresh water, no major sewage treatment plant, no primary electricity power. Everything has to be brought in and out by ship,” he said.
The primary reason for the high cost was, as Jarvis noted, isolation. Nearly a million gallons of fresh water had to be delivered to the prison by boat every week, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
Jarvis noted that Alcatraz’s notoriety as a prison was partially due to its location in the frigid and choppy waters of San Francisco Bay and fear of sharks. But that too is a somewhat dated idea. Hundreds of people every year participate in a 1.5-mile swim out to the island.
Frank Dean, who formerly served as general superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area that oversees Alcatraz, called the idea of reviving the prison “whimsical” and noted that the island is fairly small compared to modern prison facilities.
He also questioned the legality of using Alcatraz as a prison given its inclusion in a congressionally created park site.
Alcatraz was abandoned after the prison closed. A slew of ideas to repurpose it were eventually discarded, and the General Services Administration took custody of the island.
It caught public attention in 1964, when five Sicangu Lakota Indians landed on Alcatraz and declared it Indian land, according to a National Park Service website on the island’s history. They said the government was obligated to cede deserted federal land to the Sioux per the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. That occupation was short-lived but inspired another larger occupation five years later by Native American activists from various tribes that lasted 19 months.
Then in 1972, President Nixon signed a law creating the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the National Park Service acquired Alcatraz and other military sites in the bay.
It’s not clear how Trump would navigate the island’s legal protections and its ownership by the park service to create a new prison facility. The White House did not answer questions sent by email Monday.
Alcatraz was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, which protects it under the National Historic Preservation Act.
Under that law, any major changes to structures would trigger a review under the NHPA’s Section 106 provision, which encourages mitigation and avoidance of changes that would damage the historical significance of a landmark.
Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said it’s on Congress to block the president’s actions and protect the island as a national park site.
“The administration has made it clear they’re willing to ignore the value of our national parks and the rich history, culture and legacy they protect,” she said in a statement. “Congress now faces a choice to either stand up for Alcatraz and the stories it holds or allow our national parks to be sacrificed for political gain.”
