American President Donald Trump wants to reopen the famous Alcatraz prison, on an island in the San Francisco Bay, in California, and to this end he has made a request to the US Congress to include an amount of 152 million dollars (132 million euros) in the budget for the 2027 fiscal year.
The objective is to convert that infrastructure into a “state-of-the-art” prison. The first year of funding would go to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to cover reconstruction costs.
The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was opened in 1934 and quickly became the safest in the USA, as it is on an island, surrounded by icy waters and strong sea currents. It ended up being closed in 1963, and ten years later it was reopened to the public for visits, as part of the United States National Park Service.
In May 2025, Trump wrote on social media that he had instructed the FBI and the US Department of Justice, as well as other agencies, to “reopen” Alcatraz, “substantially expanded and rebuilt, to house America’s most vicious and violent criminals.”
The American president intends for that prison to become “a symbol of law, order and justice” in a country where there are “cruel, violent and repeat criminals”, which he called “the scum of society”.
Although American prison authorities said escape from Alcatraz was impossible, 36 men attempted to escape during the 29 years it was in operation, according to FBI data.
However, none of these escapes were officially recorded as successful, although five prisoners are still listed as “missing” today, which led authorities to say that they “presumably” drowned.
This episode was actually turned into a film, The Escapees from Alcatraz, which became a huge hit in 1979, with Clint Eastwood as the protagonist.
In 1996, Alcatraz Island was also the setting for the shooting of another film, The Rock com Sean Connery e Nicolas Cage.
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