Overview

• President Trump has ordered federal agencies to develop plans for reopening and expanding Alcatraz as a high-security prison for the nation's most dangerous offenders.
• The Bureau of Prisons has committed to pursuing the directive, though the plan remains in its early stages and faces significant logistical and financial challenges.
• Lawmakers across party lines, including Nancy Pelosi and Jared Moskowitz, have dismissed the proposal as unserious and a political distraction from pressing domestic issues.
• Experts highlight the prohibitive costs of rebuilding and operating Alcatraz, which was closed in 1963 due to expenses three times higher than other federal prisons.
• Critics, including a former inmate, suggest the plan is more of a publicity stunt, while alternatives like San Clemente Island have been proposed as more practical sites for a new prison.