Trump asks Congress for $152 million to start rebuilding Alcatraz prison

WASHINGTON- President Trump is asking Congress for $152 million to begin “rebuilding” the Alcatraz Island prison for operational use, although his administration appears to have taken few steps to move the project forward.

The request, in the president’s proposal budget for fiscal year 2027, resurrects Trump’s interesting concept of converting the ruined site — which has been a piece of history for more than 60 years — into an operating federal prison.

But the Bureau of Prisons said Friday it had no new information to share about the potential project and no updates on whether assessments the agency said it initiated last year had been completed.

A spokesperson said the office was “advancing, evaluating and formulating necessary actions” and pointed to a May 2025 statement from office director William K. Marshall pledging to “vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda.”

The funding request was included in Trump’s budget proposal, which gives Congress insight into the administration’s priorities ahead of the next fiscal year. Congress makes the final decisions on government funding.

Creating a functioning prison on the San Francisco Bay island would be prohibitively expensive, administration critics say, and would raise questions about its fate as a historic site that attracts more than a million tourists a year.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Friday she would try to block Trump’s proposal in Congress by any means possible, calling it “a stupid notion that would be nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

“Alcatraz is a historic museum that belongs to the public, and San Franciscans will not tolerate Washington turning one of our most iconic monuments into a political prop,” she said in a statement.

The $152 million request is only for the first year of project costs. It is not clear how long the project will take or its total cost. The budget proposal described the project as a “state-of-the-art secure correctional facility.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

“It represents something very strong, very powerful, in terms of law and order,” Trump told reporters last year. “It housed the most violent criminals in the world. … It somehow represents something horrible and beautiful, strong and miserable.”

He called the historic site “rust and rotten.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-W.A.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Trump would waste taxpayer dollars on Alcatraz “while ignoring the billions of dollars in repair needs at existing federal prisons.”

The government opened the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1934, hoping to use the isolated island to house particularly difficult prisoners, according to the National Park Service. Its cells held notorious criminals such as Al Capone, and several unsuccessful criminals. escape attempts captured the public imagination.

The prison was closed in 1963 because it had become too expensive to operate. A group of Native American activists occupied the land between 1969 and 1971, and in 1972, Alcatraz became a national recreation area under the direction of the National Park Service. It was opened to the public as a national park attraction the following year and was later designated a National Historic Landmark.

Trump, who has insisted on arresting criminals and continued plans to open new detention centers during his second term, floated the Alcatraz idea last year, saying he wanted to send “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders” there.

He directed the Bureau of Prisons to take on this task. In July, then-Atty. General Pam Bondi and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum visited the island.

“Alcatraz could be holding the worst of the worst, violent middle-class prisoners, illegal aliens,” Bondi told Fox News during the visit. “It’s a great facility; it requires a lot of work, but no one has managed to escape from Alcatraz and survive.”

The Bureau of Prisons said at the time that no final decision had been made on whether to use the site, but that the agency would determine whether “it makes operational, legal and financial sense.”

The office said then that it was working on a cost estimate and feasibility report to present to Congress after an assessment of the site with the National Park Service and work by engineers and planners on potential budgets and models.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Friday that opening Alcatraz would be “prohibitively expensive” for the federal government. He has previously characterized the concept as part of a Trump administration attack on national parks.

“Trump’s continued efforts to reopen it as a federal prison are an unnecessary and futile exercise,” Schiff said. “He should focus on lowering the cost of living for the American people, not increasing the cost of our prisons.” »