In the last few days alone, the President has shared an image of himself as the next Pope, pledged to introduce a 100 per cent tariff on movies that shoot outside of America, and pledged to reopen America’s most infamous prison: Alcatraz.
Trump says he is “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”.
square JAMES BALL
After 87 days we have proof - Trump can do whatever the hell he likesRead More
Needless to say, the idea is a deeply bizarre one: Alcatraz was closed for a reason – several very good reasons, in fact. Despite its reputation, the prison was a small one and didn’t operate for very long – it opened in 1934 and was closed down in 1963 and housed fewer than 300 offenders.
The main reasons Alcatraz was closed were cost and practicality – because it was on an island and absolutely everything had to be delivered by boat (and those boats had to be well-guarded against escape and smuggling attempts), it cost more than three times more per prisoner to run than the USA’s other federal prisons.
Then there is the problem of utilities. According to its historians, Alcatraz lacks plumbing and only has a partial electrical supply which would be entirely unfit for purpose in a modern facility. Trying to establish all of that would take years, quite probably longer than Trump’s presidential term – and all of that is just to try to reopen Alcatraz as a relatively small facility. Trump’s desire for it to be “substantially enlarged” is made difficult by the fact that Alcatraz is, after all, a very small island. That is the entire point of the facility.
square JAMES BALL
Elon Musk is 'quiet quitting' the White HouseRead More
As if all of that wasn’t headache enough, there is also the small matter that Alcatraz is a national park – and that status is established by law, which cannot be overridden by a Trump executive order. Trump thinks that being President means that everything the government owns is his to do whatever he likes with, but he cannot simply turn a park into a prison – this is a mad plan that Congress would have to actually approve.
The second is that Trump is fixated on being able to imprison people indefinitely, without restrictions like “due process” or “fair trials”, and without judges being able to stop him. As it is dawning on him that disappearing people to foreign jails for life – a sentence so horrifying it ought to be read twice – might not be as easy as he thought it would, he is looking for easy ways around that. As he flailed for the solution, he hit upon Alcatraz, and so it was ordered.
James Ball is the political editor of The New European
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump’s Alcatraz plan is fantasy – but it points to a very real danger )
Also on site :
- Hamas executes Palestinians for looting as desperation grows under Israeli blockade
- South Sacramento standoff ends with suspect surrendering to SWAT officers
- ALM vs GGL Dream11 Prediction Today Match, Dream11 Team Today, Fantasy Cricket Tips, Playing XI, Pitch Report, Injury Update- Kuwait T10 Challengers League 2025, Match 32