By: Haley Strak – nationalreview.com – May 5, 2025

President Donald Trump wants to reopen, modernize, and expand one of America’s most notorious federal penitentiaries: Alcatraz.

“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,” Trump declared on social media. “We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally. The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”

Alcatraz was shut down more than six decades ago because it cost too much to run the place (three times what it cost to run other federal prisons). Alcatraz was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1986 and is now run by the National Park Service.

To make the prison operable would require a massive amount of money; there’s no access to outside power lines or clean water on the island, facilities have deteriorated from time and saltwater damage, and weather conditions around the island make large-scale renovations difficult.

Alcatraz is already undergoing a $50 million renovation to refurbish the main prison building. Renovation plans include “abatement of hazardous materials in the exterior walls and interior construction areas, repair of concrete spalls, replacement of deteriorated steel reinforcement, strengthening of unreinforced concrete foundation walls, repair and stabilization of exterior windows, and installation of storm windows,” according to Tutor Perini, the construction company overseeing the project. Renovations will be complete in 2027. It would take years to turn Alcatraz into a functional federal penitentiary (and large-scale renovations would eat up the millions of dollars in tourist revenue the island generates each year), and California Democrats would likely delay the process in courts.

And, of course, America’s notorious criminals already have a Supermax home. ADX Florence in Colorado is known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” The facility houses around 340 prisoners, including drug lord El Chapo, al-Qaeda terrorists, and the Boston Marathon bomber, and at full capacity, the prison can hold 474.

As with many of Trump’s provocative plans, especially the ones he announces in all caps on social media, it’s difficult to know if the president is serious or not. Alcatraz would serve as the ultimate symbol for deterrence, some of Trump’s allies said. Supporters have described the Alcatraz plan as a “psychological operation” — yet another example of Trump’s ability to outsmart us all in his trademark game of 7D chess, as Charlie wrote earlier this year.

Sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into an Alcatraz renovation project instead of expanding or improving maximum security prisons that already exist is impractical (and unlikely). Proposing such an idea is a pointless distraction from Trump’s so-far-successful effort to deport rapists and murderers.

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Source: Trump’s Plan to Reopen Alcatraz Will Never Happen | National Review