An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Collage of Donald Trump speaking at a podium, Alcatraz island, and an Alcatraz prison cell, Image 2 shows A view inside a cell on Alcatraz Island with a mannequin on a bed to depict a prisoner, Image 3 shows A view inside a cell on Alcatraz Island with a mannequin on a bed to depict a prisoner
WASHINGTON — President Trump wants to make California’s Alcatraz Island into an active prison again — feared by criminals and impossible to escape.
Trump’s budget to Congress on Friday includes a $152 million request to get the long-shuttered iconic lockup up and running again as a “state-of-the-art secure prison facility.”
In 2025, the Trump administration started feasibility studies to reopen Alcatraz as a maximum-security federal prison for violent offenders and undocumented immigrants.
President Trump’s budget request includes $152 million to help rebuild Alcatraz as a prison dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
The president personally pushed for the project, writing on Truth Social in May to “Rebuild, and open Alcatraz!” He also pointed out it’s “foreboding” and “surrounded by sharks.”
“What a symbol it is, and will be!” Trump exclaimed.
Now his 2027 budget request includes $152 million to cover the first year of costs for rebuilding the massive prison facility on an island in the San Francisco Bay.
Trump’s budget must be approved by Congress before any dollars are allocated.
Local pols in California slammed Trump’s plan for reopening the prison.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who frequently clashed with Trump during her time as House speaker, called the Alcatraz proposal “absurd on its face.”
“Rebuilding Alcatraz into a modern prison is a stupid notion that would be nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars and an insult to the intelligence of the American people,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“I will work with my colleagues in the Congress to use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to block this lunacy.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who is running to succeed Pelosi in Congress, told The Post: “Trump’s idiotic quest to sink $2 billion into ruining a globally popular tourist attraction is the epitome of waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Wiener added, “Trump’s dementia continues to get the best of him. Making Alcatraz a prison again isn’t a thing, and we’re not going to let him turn Alcatraz into his newest gulag. Back off.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie declined to comment, but a spokesman noted that he made comments last year against converting Alcatraz back into a prison.
In May 2025, the Bureau of Prisons partnered with the National Park Service conducted its first assessment to see if modern corrections infrastructure can be realistically brought to the island.
A few months later in July, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited the island to personally inspect the site. Bondi, after the tour, described it as a “terrific facility.”
Alcatraz was closed as a federal prison in 1963 but now serves as a popular tourist destination and bird sanctuary.
Known as “The Rock,” in its heyday, it was an imposing fortress that housed famous criminals like Al Capone, “Machine Gun” Kelly, the “Birdman of Alcatraz” Robert Stroud, and “Whitey” Bulger.
President Trump has expressed his admiration for Alcatraz, noting its forebidding location and that it’s “surrounded by sharks” MediaPunch / BACKGRID
Now it features boatloads of dressed-down tourists visiting the cells and gift shop.
According to the National Park Service, “Alcatraz Island welcomes approximately 1.2 million visitors a year” and generates around $60 million in annual revenue.
It began operations as a prison in 1934. Built to hold 336 prisoners, there were usually 260 to 275 men behind its walls.
Situated on a rocky island, it was notoriously hard to escape.
A cell in the notorious prison Getty Images
Nobody is definitively known to have successfully broken out, though 36 tried (including two who attempted it twice). Twenty-three were caught and returned, seven got fatally shot, three drowned in the surrounding shark-infested waters, and five were never heard from again.
A full rebuild of the facility could take years and millions of dollars. The facility itself is crumbling. There is no running water or sewage system. All necessary supplies, including food and fuel, must be brought in by boat.
Trump’s budget contains $1.5 trillion for the Department of War; $19 billion for federal law enforcement; and cuts for “woke” and “green” projects.
Other interesting line items include $1 billion for the restoration of the Great Salt Lake and $30 million for the Melania Trump Foster Youth to Independence Initiative.
