U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he had ordered the country's Federal Bureau of Prisons to restore and reopen the infamous Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay to "hold America's most ruthless and brutal criminals," UNN reports, citing Reuters.
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"Restore and reopen Alcatraz! - he wrote on the Truth Social platform. - When we were a more serious country, in the old days, we didn't hesitate to put the most dangerous criminals in jail and keep them away from those they could harm."
The federal prison of Alcatraz held such famous American criminals as Al Capone until it was closed in 1963. Now it is one of San Francisco's most popular tourist destinations.
"Today, I am instructing the Bureau of Prisons, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, to reopen a significantly expanded and rebuilt Alcatraz," Trump wrote.
Trump told reporters upon returning to the White House from Florida that the prison's reopening was "just my idea" and decided to act.
"It's a symbol of law and order," he said.
Alcatraz was declared America's most secure prison, given its island location, cold water, and strong currents. Officially, there has been no recorded successful escape from Alcatraz, although five inmates are considered "missing and presumed drowned."
Alcatraz was closed because it was too expensive to continue operating, according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons website, largely due to its island location. Its operation was almost three times more expensive than any other federal prison, the bureau's website says.
Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a Democratic lawmaker from California, downplayed the Republican president's plan.
"Alcatraz was closed as a federal prison more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and a major tourist attraction. The president's proposal is not serious," she wrote in a post on X.