'Unhinged': Trump's order to reopen Alcatraz for violent offenders is widely mocked
The Guardian
|May 06, 2025
California lawmakers yesterday dismissed as "absurd" Donald Trump's order that the notorious Alcatraz prison should be reopened to house America's most dangerous offenders.
The prison, in San Francisco bay, which once housed the gangster Al Capone, was closed in 1963 due to operational expense and the high number of (unsuccessful) escape attempts. It is now a popular national park and tourist attraction.
In a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday, 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... we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm."
He added: "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."
Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator representing San Francisco, posted that Trump "wants to turn Alcatraz into a domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay".
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