President Donald Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz as a prison. Is he serious?
The month that Alcatraz closed down in 1963, “To Kill A Mockingbird” had been running in movie theaters for 12 weeks and John F. Kennedy, still alive, had just returned from a presidential trip to Central America to warn against the looming specter of communism.
Sixty-two years later, the former San Francisco Bay prison could be reopening if Donald Trump gets his way. On Sunday, the president said he was ordering the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, along with the federal Bureau of Prisons and the FBI, to reopen Alcatraz as a “substantially enlarged and rebuilt” facility to “house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.”
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”
A BOP spokesperson did not respond when asked how much the renovation will cost or when the agency expects to reopen it as a prison, which would require substantial code improvements to meet modern day requirements. Agency director William K. Marshall III said in a statement that he had ordered an “immediate assessment” to determine next steps.
“The Bureau of Prisons will vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda,” Marshall said. “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.”
The facility housed federal prisoners from 1934 until 1963 after Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the then-president’s brother, ordered its closure because it cost three times more to operate than any other federal facility.
The National Parks Service now runs it as a federal park and museum. Some 1.2 million visitors flock to the attraction every year, which could threaten San Francisco’s tourism industry if it reopens as a federal prison. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently launched a state campaign to entice Canadian tourists to continue coming to California in the face of Trump’s tariffs and his threats to annex it as the U.S.’s so-called 51st state.
After his spokesperson initially called Trump’s Alcatraz order “distraction day in Washington,” Newsom said Monday that state officials anticipated international tourism to decline by as much as 9.2% this year because of the tariffs and the president’s rhetoric towards other countries.
“Looking ahead, 2025 is projected to be more challenging, particularly due to global economic pressures and a slowdown in international tourism, the direct result of declining global sentiment about travel to the United States,” his office said in a release. “California is already seeing the impact, with a sharp year-over-year decline in March of this year.”
Other Democratic officials, like U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and her potential successor, state Sen. Scott Wiener, also scoffed at Trump’s order.
Padilla called Trump’s order a “joke” and “a distraction from how his policies are driving up prices and hurting the economy.”
“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago,” Pelosi said on X. “The president’s proposal is not a serious one.”
In a statement, Wiener called Trump’s edict “absurd on its face,” and an escalation of his “continuing unhinged behavior” as the administration has attacked federal judges who have ordered them to stop arresting people and deporting them without a warrant or first seeing a judge or a lawyer.
“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,” Wiener said.
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 12:45 PM.
