US President Trump orders reopening of Alcatraz prison

By  News On Air   May 05, 2025

US President Donald Trump has directed his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the former prison on an island off the coast of California.

On a social media platform yesterday, President Trump said that for too long America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders, and the reopening of Alcatraz would serve as a “symbol of law, order, and justice. The prison was closed in 1963, and Alcatraz Island is currently operating as a tourist site. It lies near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz was originally a naval defence fort, and it was rebuilt in the early 20th Century as a military prison. The Department of Justice took it over in the 1930s, and it began taking in convicts from the federal prison system.