Critics call Trump plan to reopen Alcatraz ‘absurd’
Michael Gennaro
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — President Donald Trump’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz, the infamous prison that closed more than 60 years ago, was met with derision by critics and politicians alike.
“Today, 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 wrote on his Truth Social social network Sunday night. “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.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat whose district includes Alcatraz, slammed Trump's proposal on X, writing, “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.”
California Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat representing San Francisco, also called Trump’s idea “absurd on its face” in a statement Sunday.
“But apart from Trump’s continuing unhinged behavior, this action is part of Trump’s ongoing crusade to sabotage the rule of law. He specifically points to judges who won’t let him deport whomever he wants without due process as justification for this stunt,” Wiener said. “If Trump is serious about doing this, it’s just one more step in his dismantling of democracy — a domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay.”
Alcatraz is operated today by the National Park Service and welcomes more than 1 million visitors per year. The former prison was also designated as a national historic landmark in 1986.
The prison was closed in 1963 in large part because of cost reasons; its walls had corroded because of exposure to salty sea air, and all supplies had to be taken to the prison by boat, inflating costs. Authorities at the time said it would cost between $3 million and $5 million to restore and maintain the facility, excluding the cost of daily operations.
“Alcatraz was nearly three times more expensive to operate than any other Federal prison,” according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Ashley Rubin, an associate professor of sociology and prison expert at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said that it’s likely not possible to reopen the prison in any realistic timeframe.
“Realistically, I think you would need to tear down the buildings and rebuild, which would take too long to be feasible. The prison is buffeted by salty winds, which contributes to erosion, so the prison, which is coming up on its 100th birthday, is not in great shape — it’s good enough for a tourist attraction, but not to hold criminals for any meaningful period of time,” Rubin said. “Reopening as is, removing the gift shop and removing other remnants of the tourist attraction and ongoing historical preservation efforts, would likely be unsafe for the prisoners, staff, and public. Alcatraz used to be difficult to escape from; it would be easier today with the prison in its current condition.”
Rubin noted that there are plenty of prisons in operation that are over 100 years old but that Alcatraz presents unique problems in any reopening.
“Some of the parts of the prison would be unusable, though, or extremely dangerous, both for health reasons and structural instability. Others that have been maintained as part of the tourist attraction would not be unhealthful and would be better than some current prisons," Rubin said. “However, I would not trust their structural integrity. We’ve come a long way in security measures for prisons and reopening Alcatraz would be really inefficient.”
The physical isolation of the island was a major expense when the prison was open; everything from food to water to fuel had to be taken to Alcatraz by boat. The island had no source of fresh water, so nearly a million gallons per week had to be barged to the island for prisoners and the workers.
“The federal government found that it was more cost-effective to build a new institution than to keep Alcatraz open,” according to the same article on the Bureau of Prisons website.
Still, the Bureau of Prisons is taking Trump’s proposal seriously. U.S. Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III said his agency will “pursue all avenues” to reopen the prison that was once infamously nicknamed “The Rock.”
“I have ordered an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps. 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,” Marshall said in a statement.
It’s not clear how much money would be needed to reopen the prison or how many inmates it could hold; the prison could hold up to 336 inmates when it was operational, but it was never at full capacity.
Rubin declined to say how much it would cost exactly to reopen Alcatraz but did note that if Trump were to rebuild the prison, the location and poor conditions would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and San Francisco would lose out on the money that Alcatraz currently generates as a tourist attraction.
“But it would really depend on how quickly and how secure they wanted the prison. If it was just a showpiece, you could probably reopen as a boutique prison with very low-level offenders; it would still be expensive, but more like tens of millions maybe,” Rubin said. “But it’s really hard for me to say. Since it would be in California, it would likely also have to go through various environmental reviews and such that take time and more money.”
Despite Trump’s posts, as of Monday, however, the proposal remained just that: a proposal. The White House had not issued an executive order on Alcatraz.