Trump Wants to ‘Rebuild, and Open Alcatraz!’
“The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he wants to rebuild and open Alcatraz:
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. 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. No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets. 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. We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally. The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
The rock became the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1934. Famous prisoners include gangsters Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (Bird Man of Alcatraz), James “Whitey” Bulger and Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson.
Authorities thought the 1.25-mile distance to the San Francisco shore would deter people from escaping.
A few tried. We still do not know for sure if Frank Morris, John, and Clarence Anglin survived on June 11, 1962. No one ever found their bodies.
The FBI believes all three drowned.
The prison closed in 1963.
Alcatraz became a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
It is unlikely any government will use The Rock as a prison again. If you’ve visited the prison, you know it’s not in the greatest of shape.
Oh, wait! I forgot! Someone did escape Alcatraz! He had to help people held captive on The Rock:
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Comments
While re-building & re-opening Alcatraz is a great “get tough on crime” PR move I’m not sold on the financial aspect of it. It’s isolation means outside aided and any prison breaks would be much harder, yes. Also, fewer idiot protestors making a scene outside the front gates protesting to free the latest Hero Cop Killer or Hamas mass murder advocate.
But it’s 90 years old, some concrete only gets stronger with age but I doubt that’s the material it was built with. I suspect they’ll have to level the current buildings and start from scratch. Operating costs also will be higher than if they just built a new facility in the boondocks.
Supply chain is also a little more expensive and inefficient.
I’ve toured Alcatraz and that concrete is definitely not the sort that gets stronger with age. Both metal and concrete were in bad shape, corroded by wind and the salt air, and that was over 20 years ago. It can also only hold about 300 prisoners.
I agree that as a symbol it’s great, but logistically not so much.
No. They’d have to level and rebuild in order for some members of congress and the California state legislature to get kickbacks from the no-bid contractor selected to do the job.
A three year job that in fact will be finished in 12, with cost overruns that make The Train to Nowhere look like a bargain.
There you are! I’ve been holding this until you posted today:
https://x.com/CaeruleusCanis/status/1916809712793784593/photo/1
This has the advantage of being right near the middle of California so state legislators can visit some of their newly arrived constituents. Wonder if any Dem pols will raise hell over this?
Why let El Salvador have all the fun?
Isn’t that what Guantanamo is for?
Why not just release them in Cuba. Turnabout is fair play after all.
Alcatraz is too small to be of use. It doesn’t even hold 1,000 prisoners.
Leave it as a tourist attraction, turn the island of Manhattan into a prison instead.
Call up HGTV to do a special design and ad on to the building.
“Move that bust!”
Snake Plisskin would agree.
Its not big enough. Not enough capacity. US population much bigger now than 1963. But potential retirement home for pelosi?
Use the cave where they store all the civil service records.
They’ll have to kick out the Audubon society.
Good. Nobody cares about birds crapping on a rock.
the left might have a point here on why NOT to open up prisons
they have allowed our homes our streets our libraries to become criminal run ..why “waste” money on these places
The Founders gave us a society in which any man who was walking the streets could be assumed to be in possession of all of his constitutional and civil rights. If he was not, he would either be in prison, or banished outside the country.
The left turned society into a national “extension prison,” such that every man walking the streets must now “prove his innocence” to a member of our standing army of police upon demand.
“They have allowed our homes our streets our libraries to become criminal run ..why “waste” money on these places?”
In order to make a change, you must start with the mind, with people’s thinking—and that’s what Trump is doing by throwing out images like this that will stick in people’s minds and help them to see how dire the situation is and that something radical must be done about it.
We need to get a real feasibility study completed, including a similar facility in a less expensive area.
Don’t forget the Environmental Impact Studies, and the myriad permits…!
I think it’s a great idea
Need bigger island for expansion space. Otherwise the lefties are going to say the prison is “overcrowded” and they must pardon inmates early.
Hmmm, an underwater landfill to expand the island? They could easily source it from San Francisco.
Parts of SF near the edge of the water were filled in that way in the past and built on. They become zones of liquefaction during earthquake, and extremely unsafe. Much of South of Market neighborhood in SF is like that now. That’s why the Millenium Tower is tilting. No safe way to do that on or around earthquake fault lines. It isn’t buildable site for any large projects of scale.
It might work for smaller special use structures. For example, housing death row inmates, during their appeals process, with on site execution chamber, that is out of the reach of State of CA wacko leftie politicians.
I nominate Hawaii.
One of the hawaiian islands is used as leprosy colony.
Another orange harvey special. No logic, no thought. Just ‘ what would make the redhat goobers hoot and holler. Laffriot
Yet it’s your pants that appear wet in front, as you hoot and holler. Angry man cannot control his rage or his bladder.
Or occupy easily distracted wokiestas with a new shiny object, like a laser pointer and a cat.
Ho ho ho. You so funny, lil ho.
Bot troll alert.
Major obstacle: the island has no water. When in operation they had to “import” water from SF. [And the “prison industry” they ran there was a laundry. Yep, a laundry using barged-in water.]
It was the crowd favorite field trip for my kids in Jr. Hi. I was a parental escort for maybe 4 years running. The prison is in terrible condition, or was then; probably more so now. About a dozen cells had been rehabed by the movie people when making The escape movie. A Dirty Harry movie also used it once. Its doubtful any of it would remotely approach current standards for custodial institutions.
We don’t have a shortage of prisons. We have a shortage of people in the right places with the stones to put people in them.
I believe that Dirty Harry movie blew up one of the watchtowers with a LAW.
Correct.
An earlier “mostly peaceful” occupation by representatives of AIM burned down the former warden’s residence.
At the end of The Enforcer. The bad guy was at the top of the tower, while the mayor climbing a few steps behind him. Harry was lucky he didn’t blow both of them away.
However, not sure that was at Alcatraz. Can anyone verify?
Meh. They didn’t have PVC back then.
Maybe he will propose building an entirely new testament of The Rock!
In any event, bound to get the deranged off to a good week.
The MASTER TROLLER strikes again. Shut down the tourist attraction for a year for a feasibility study. Tourist dollars can go to red states instead.
For all youse that are against this for whatever reason, I can persuade you in one simple sentence:
“The Hillary Rodham Clinton Memorial Isolation and Waterboarding Wing”
Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
See? Told ya I could persuade you.
The china consulate in SF is nest of spies. Real facts.
so is every country’s embassy including ours.
One person responded on X by conjuring a story of some inmates escaping and getting to San Francisco… and deciding they needed to go back to Alcatraz.
Stupid idea. I hope it is just another trolling expedition.
Meh, buy some older container vessels, anchor them and issue cots and a blanket. Drop off pallets of MRE and Water daily and let them establish a ‘vibrant, inclusive multicultural community of caring’ while they await their habeas petition.
Perhaps England will bring back the prison barges. Of course right now they’d use them for “wrong thinkers”.
See, and that “wrong thinker” bit demonstrates the problem with giving them a boat and any kind of autonomy.
Because Americans would make weapons out of whatever was on board, up anchor, and turn into pirates. (They’d ditch the barge when they commandeered a Disney cruise. Hopefully one with The Bulwark people on it.)
‘Ahoy’. They can have the rest of the National Review neocons as well.
I like the idea of prison barges better.
This has nothing to do with prisons directly… it’s sending a very clear message. Even the thugs who quit learning to read in the 3rd Grade know about Alcatraz …. and know (wasn’t) it’s not a nice place….
“No more Mr. Nice Guy”….
what’s the message when judges are giving light sentences, prosecutors are ignoring favored crimes, we can build all the prisons that DJT would like but they won’t be utilized until Bondi, aka, Jeff Sessions in a skirt, starts prosecuting,…like maybe some of Epstein clients?
DW and I were surprised to hear that Alcatraz had housed Whitey Bulger, given that it closed in 1963. Guess the man started his rap sheet much earlier than we suspected.
The irony. The country’s most famous and notorious criminal espousing a way to lock up criminals. I can’t wait till 2028 when a Dem President sned him there- where he deserves to be. LAFFRIOT!!
You want to send a man to supermax who’s only conviction is a supposed fraud case that the judge in the case felt warranted no punishment? Do you plan to execute jaywalkers too?
Them and bicyclists who blow through red lights.
he’s also guilty of 3 other felonies. Hopefully those cases eventually get to trial. Supermax for anybody who foments an insurrection. OR death by firing squad. I wouldn’t object. {{GUTBUST}}
Looking forward to your peritonitis-reveal celebration.
Junior, you forgot your bib again. Just look at that mess.
If he had committed any crimes that could actually be prosecuted, they would have tried prosecuting him for them instead of coming up with all the obvious garbage they did. The fact that they pulled that crap shows that they couldn’t find anything real. Any actual crimes he may have committed are either very well hidden, or past the statute of limitations.
I had a private tour over forty years ago and it was falling apart then. They used saltwater to mix the concrete and the rebar has expanded, cracking the poured concrete to the point of crumbling. All the metal has rusted and all the wood is rotten. Every piece of building material will have to come by boat. Every piece of food will have to come by boat. It will be in CA under the Ninth Circuit court control. Every medical emergency will be by helicopter. This is just plain lunacy at the highest level! During its actual use as a prison, the prisoners washed the underwear of all the military bases in the Bay area to save money. Trump as a builder, should know better than this.
China is having a similar problem on a nationwide scale with many buildings, roads, and bridges built during the 90s infrastructure boom. Sea sand was used for the concrete because it was cheaper than the less abundant river sand. The latent salt draws in moisture and accelerates corrosion of the rebar, causing swelling and cracking and eventual structural failure.
There’s really no excuse TODAY for any major infrastructure project or ANY project near a shoreline to to not be using fiber rebar of one sort or another- there are several choices, along with fiber reinforced concrete. Will it add cost to the project? Yes. Will it make the infrastructure much more durable and longer lasting? Also yes.
A Better Plan for the very worst criminal offenders Trump referenced:
Make the Death Penalty Great Again.
Making trolling the Democrats Great Again!
Build a prison on the aleutians and send them there,
Ztakddot great idea. We could also move the HQ of several federal agencies to Dutch Harbor. I wonder if any of the dedicated career bureaucrats would refuse to relocate?
Dumb idea, even if just a troll. I’m far from any liberal, but Trump’s trolling is becoming tedious.
Just a thought: One can rattle off a list of things nay-sayers said were impossible to do….until Trump did them.
like????
SF biggest industry is tourism. They are going to fight losing one of the tourist attractions. But they would ultimately fail. SF doesn’t control the island.