Critics blast Trump’s Alcatraz plan over cost: Everything you need to know about reopening the notorious prison

Donald Trump is being blasted for his plans to reopen Alcatraz, with experts saying it will cost millions and years of work to make it a modern, functional prison.

That is if he envisions getting to that level.

“REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” President Trump bellowed on Truth Social Sunday evening in a post in which he lambasted criminals and “the dregs of society” for being in America “for too long.”

The U.S. president told reporters on Sunday that the idea came from his frustration at “radicalized judges” accused of slowing down his deportations.

But former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat whose district includes the island, questioned the feasibility of reopening the prison after so many years. “It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on X.

Others have spoken more plainly on the idea.

Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator representing San Francisco, said: “Putting aside that Alcatraz is a museum & tourist attraction, this is both nuts & terrifying.” While Democrat influencer Brian Krassenstein called the idea the “dumbest proposal I’ve heard.”

How much might it cost?

According to some estimates, to house just 200 to 300 inmates at the remote island prison off the coast of San Francisco could be more than double that of a normal mainland facility.

As one attorney on X noted, in 1963, cost per inmate at Alcatraz would be twice that of other federal prisons due to the transportation costs (via barge) for food, water, and other supplies.

Adjusting such costs for inflation, annual operating costs could be $100 million for up to 300 inmates, compared to $50 million for a regular facility back on dry land. Meanwhile, a Democratic policy analyst on X estimated it would cost between $235 million and $370 million to rebuild and reopen the prison.

In his post criticising the move, Krassenstein said: “At least $175-250m just to shore up crumbling concrete, retrofit for earthquakes, and install 21st-century security tech. Operating costs that never stop bleeding. Everything, water, food, fuel, must be barged in, and raw sewage barged out. That pushes the annual budget to 3× a comparable mainland prison, roughly $70–75 M every single year.”

As it stands, Alcatraz is a popular tourist attraction, managed by the National Park Service for visitors across the globe. However, with around 1.6 million visitors, the prison only generates approximately $60 million in annual revenue – slightly short of estimated figures.

In 2024, a rehabilitation project to correct seismic structural deficiencies of Alcatraz’s Main Prison Building was revealed, with funding of approximately $63.6 million provided by the Great American Outdoors Act, according to the NPS. Its completion date was estimated for the fall of 2027.

Would reopening even help?

Trump’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz comes amid his controversial migrant detention policies, with his administration being taken to court over the use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of individuals to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.

“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,” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “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.”

At its peak Alcatraz housed around 260 to 275, and never reached its maximum 336-cell capacity. Such a capacity was less than one percent of the federal prison population at the time. As of 2025 that number is over 156,000 – with estimates of over two million people incarcerated in the U.S. overall.

Even if reopened, the prison would do very little to help the problem of prison overpopulation, never mind the millions of undocumented migrants that Trump is targeting for prison or deportation.

What is the site used for today?

Alcatraz Island, known famously as “The Rock”, was first discovered by the Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775 along with two other islands in San Francisco Bay – the “Alcatraces”.

A century-and-a-half later, a presidential order set it aside for military use in 1850 before the first military prisoners were being housed on the island by the late 1850s. It continued its role as a prison for over 100 years.

After closing in 1963, the jail first opened to the public in the fall of 1973, following a congressional order to open a new National Park Service Unit, called the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, in 1972.

It has since ballooned in popularity to become one of the most visited tourist spots in the U.S., with over a million visitors from across the world each year, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Who were its famous inmates?

The most notorious criminals to be housed at Alcatraz included Alphonse “Al” Capone, George “Machine-Gun” Kelly, and “Ma Barker” gang members, Alvin Karpis, and Arthur “Doc” Barker.

Karpis served the longest term at the penitentiary, 26 years, after being sentenced to life imprisonment for ten murders, six kidnappings, and a robbery.

According to the FBP, “most of the prisoners incarcerated there were not well-known gangsters, but prisoners who refused to conform to the rules and regulations at other Federal institutions, who were considered violent and dangerous, or who were considered escape risks.”

Prisoners would undergo a monotonous daily routine inside the penitentiary and were granted four basic rights: food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. Everything else was a privilege that needed to be earned.

How many prisoners escaped?

According to records, no one has ever successfully escaped Alcatraz.

Yet between 1934 and the prison’s closure, a total of 36 men tried to escape on 14 separate occasions. “Nearly all were caught or didn’t survive the attempt,” states the FBI.

However, the fates of three inmates, John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris, remain a mystery.

Why did it close?

Alcatraz officially closed on March 21, 1963, after 29 years of operation as a secure prison.

Its closure was held back because of the disappearance of Morris and the Anglins, with the decision to close the prison made long before the three disappeared, states the FBP.

The institution was judged to be too expensive to continue operating with roughly $3-5million needed to restore the site.