FOX Business American Built explores the beginnings of San Franciscos island-based penitentiary.
President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that he’s directing federal agencies to reopen the prison at Alcatraz after rebuilding and expanding the prison that was shuttered over 60 years ago and currently serves as a museum and tourist destination in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The maximum-security federal penitentiary at Alcatraz Island opened in 1934, located 1.25 miles from the coast, where it was thought to be escape-proof because of the San Francisco Bay’s strong currents and shark-infested waters. The federal prison housed notorious criminals like Al Capone, and saw a high-profile escape that inspired the 1979 Hollywood film “Escape from Alcatraz.”
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The prison at Alcatraz closed in 1963 because it was no longer cost-effective compared to other prisons. Ahead of its closure, the Bureau of Prisons said Alcatraz’s operating costs were over three times that of any other federal prison in 1959 – $10.10 daily per capita cost compared with $3 in Atlanta.
TRUMP ORDERS FEDS TO REOPEN ALCATRAZ TO HOUSE ‘AMERICA’S MOST RUTHLESS AND VIOLENT’ CRIMINALS
Those costs were because all the prison’s food, water, fuel and other supplies had to be taken by boat to the island, while the prison’s infrastructure was crumbling due to the maritime environment, causing millions of dollars in deferred maintenance.
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay as seen from Treasure Island in San Francisco, on Sept. 18, 2024. (Photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Responsibility for the former prison on Alcatraz was given to the Department of the Interior in 1972 to be part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is operated by the National Park Service and has turned the site into a tourist attraction, generating tens of millions of dollars per year.
The National Park Service said last year that Alcatraz Island hosts about 1.6 million visitors annually and generates about $60 million in annual revenue. Much of that funding is used to help finance park projects.
An aerial view shows Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, California, on May 16, 2024. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
NPS has also been working on the $40 million rehabilitation of Alcatraz Island’s wharf, which hasn’t been updated since it was first built in 1939. That project is expected to be completed at the end of this year.
Alcatraz was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. That designation can be considered for withdrawal at the request of the owner or by the secretary of the interior, according to the National Park Service.
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A view inside the prison on Alcatraz Island. (Araya Doheny/Getty Images for Alcatraz City Cruises / Getty Images)
Trump said in a Sunday post on social media platform Truth Social that he is directing federal agencies to “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!”
“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. “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.”
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“That is why, today, I am 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,” Trump said.
