U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a new proposal to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the island prison off the coast of San Francisco that has been closed for over 60 years.

In a post shared late Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the country needs to take a tougher stance on crime and revisit “a time when we locked up the worst criminals, and kept them far away from the public.”

"Alcatraz will stand once again," Trump wrote, calling it a symbol of “law, order, and JUSTICE.” He went on to describe the prison as the ideal place to house what he called “the most dangerous and repeat criminal offenders.”

Nicknamed “The Rock,” Alcatraz once housed some of America’s most infamous inmates, including mob boss Al Capone and gangster George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Its isolated location, surrounded by the cold, choppy waters of the Pacific, made it nearly impossible to escape, a reputation cemented by popular films like Escape from Alcatraz and The Rock.

Trump’s plan, according to his post, involves working closely with the Department of Justice, the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Bureau of Prisons to “substantially enlarge and rebuild” the facility to accommodate today’s most violent and habitual offenders.

In his message, Trump claimed the country is being overwhelmed by “vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders, the dregs of society,” and promised to “fix that”. 

He also floated proposals to send accused gang members to El Salvador’s notoriously harsh prisons and reopen Guantánamo Bay to detain as many as 30,000 undocumented “criminal aliens.”

The Justice Department has not yet responded to Trump's claims or proposals regarding Alcatraz.

 

You might also be interested in - UNSC to hold meeting today on India-Pakistan tensions after Pahalgam attack