by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News April 5, 2026
President Donald Trump on Friday requested $152 million to cover first-year costs for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to rebuild Alcatraz into “a state-of-the-art secure prison facility.”
In May 2025, Trump first federal agencies to develop a plan aimed at reopening Alcatraz, which was closed by the Bureau of Prisons in 1963 and has since 1973 operated as a National Park Service tourist site which is visited by more than a million people each year.
In a social media post in May 2025, the president instructed the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, and other agencies to “reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
Trump said the project is a “symbol of law, order, and justice.”
Alcatraz Island sits 1.25 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay. The current facility is 960,000 square feet, nearly the size of 17 football fields. Its frigid waters and powerful currents made it one of the nation’s most secure prisons during its operation. No successful escapes were ever officially recorded, though five inmates were listed as missing and presumed drowned.
Alcatraz opened as a federal prison in 1934 and quickly earned a reputation for holding the country’s most notorious criminals.
Famous inmates included Chicago gangster Al Capone, Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
Congress will now review Trump’s proposal as part of broader spending negotiations.
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