Donald Trump calls for reopening of Alcatraz prison to hold 'ruthless and violent' offenders

Island jail off coast of San Francisco, now a popular tourist site, closed in 1964

Could violent offenders return to jail on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California? AP

President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach Californian island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.

The announcement is the latest in the Trump administration's push to be tougher on crime, with executive orders on “unleashing” law enforcement and restoring the death penalty at the federal level.

“For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent and repeat criminal offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than misery and suffering,” the President wrote on his Truth Social platform. “When we were a more serious nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

He said he had instructed the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to reopen “a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz, to house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders”.

The directive is the latest salvo in his effort to overhaul how and where federal prisoners and immigration detainees are locked up. But it is expected such a move would be expensive and challenging.

The prison was closed in 1963 because of crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island jail, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat. Bringing Alcatraz up to modern-day standards would require vast investment at a time when the Bureau of Prisons has been closing prisons with similar infrastructure issues.

A National Park Service ranger walks down 'Broadway' in the main cell block on Alcatraz Island in 2007. AFP

At its peak, the prison, which opened in 1934, held 312 inmates. After it closed, it was converted into a museum and became a popular tourist site.

The prison – infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it – housed some of the nation's most notorious criminals, including gangster Al Capone and George 'Machine Gun' Kelly. In the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI. No inmates were ever officially confirmed to have escaped and survived.

The penal island has long been part of the cultural imagination and has featured in numerous films, including The Rock starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat whose district includes the island, questioned the feasibility of reopening the prison after so many years. “It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on X.

Many jails in the US are currently overcrowded and understaffed, and critics of the penal system say these are consequences of criminal justice policy, not of rising crime rates.

Mr Trump has come under criticism over other issues related to locking people up. He has ordered the opening of a detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that could hold up to 30,000 of whom he has labelled the “worst criminal aliens”.

He has also sent scores of immigrants – primarily from Venezuela – accused of gang membership or violent crimes to El Salvador, home to the mega prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre, or Cecot.

Alcatraz Island is pictured on Sunday, May 4, 2025. AP