President Trump Issues Order to Reopen Notorious Alcatraz Prison​on May 5, 2025 at 12:24 pm

President Trump knows how to throw a curveball — and his latest one most people won’t see coming because he plans to reopen the notorious Alcatraz prison.

In fact, the commander in chief says on Truth Social … he’s directing the federal Bureau of Prisons to not only reopen Alcatraz but to rebuild the prison in order to “house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders” and “serve as a symbol of Law, Order and JUSTICE.”

In his Truth Social post Sunday night, Trump goes on to say, “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.”

Earlier Sunday, Trump told journalists at the White House that reopening the penitentiary was “just an idea” because “radicalized judges” want to give due process to every illegal immigrant in the country, which would jam up the legal system with “millions of trials.” Trump said that even though Alcatraz is a “sad symbol,” it still represents law and order and has quite a history.

That it does. Alcatraz is an island located in the waters off San Francisco, California, and it was run by the Department of Justice as a federal prison from 1934 to 1963, when it shuttered. Some of the most infamous criminals in American history were incarcerated there, including Al Capone, Robert “The Birdman” Stroud and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

Alcatraz was closed after almost 30 years because, according to the BOP, it was too expensive to continue operating with an estimated $3 million to $5 million needed for restoration and maintenance work to keep the prison running at the time.The BOP also had to factor in daily operating costs, making Alcatraz three times as much to manage as other federal detention facilities.