Why Is Trump Spending $152 Million to Rebuild a Prison That Failed 60 Years Ago?
US President Donald Trump has requested $152 million in his 2027 fiscal year budget to reopen Alcatraz as a secure prison facility. Located near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the site has been a tourist attraction for decades.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed the proposal as “absurd on its face,” branding it a “stupid notion” and a direct waste of taxpayer dollars. California politicians across the board moved to reject the plan outright.
Critics exposed Alcatraz’s crippling logistical failures — no running water, no sewage system, all supplies delivered by boat. By 1963, when it shut down, it cost 3 times more to run than any other federal prison.
The $152 million request is part of a larger $1.7 billion Bureau of Prisons investment. Trump announced on Truth Social, ordering the DOJ, FBI, and Homeland Security to rebuild Alcatraz to house America’s “most ruthless and violent offenders.”
Originally a naval fort, Alcatraz was converted to a military prison, then a federal penitentiary in the 1930s. Its most notorious inmates included gangsters Al Capone, Mickey Cohen, and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
Today, the National Park Service runs Alcatraz as a tourist landmark generating $60 million annually. Reopening it would erase an iconic American symbol immortalised in films like The Rock (1996) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
