Donald Trump has directed his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a California island, to house “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders”.
The US president said he was directing the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the FBI and Homeland Security “to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz”.
In a message on his Truth Social site on Sunday evening, Trump wrote: “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.
“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 added: “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the agency “will comply with all Presidential Orders”.
The San Francisco prison – infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters which surround it – was known as The Rock and housed some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including gangster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
It has long been part of the cultural imagination and has been the subject of numerous movies, including The Rock starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.
A visitor to Alcatraz Island’s former federal prison leans against a B Block cell. Trump wants to reopen it to America’s ‘most violent and ruthless’ criminals (Photo: Noah Berger/File Photo/Reuters)In the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI. Nearly all were caught or did not survive the attempt.
Alcatraz Island is now a major tourist site that is operated by the National Park Service and is a designated National Historic Landmark.
The closure of the federal prison in 1963 was attributed to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.
It was nearly three times more costly to operate than any other federal prison, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website said.
The Bureau of Prisons has 16 penitentiaries performing the same high-security functions as Alcatraz, including its maximum-security facility in Florence, Colorado, and the US penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is home to the federal death chamber.
The order comes as Trump has been clashing with the courts as he tries to send accused gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, without due process.
The president has also directed the opening of a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 of what he has labelled the “worst criminal aliens”.
With agencies
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