Feds prep to reopen Alcatraz. ‘Stupidest initiative yet,’ critics say

Two federal officials toured the former Alcatraz penitentiary in the San Francisco Bay early Thursday morning as part of the Trump administration’s effort to reopen the infamous island prison, a move that critics say would be more expensive than building a new prison.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Alcatraz before the usual rush of tourists at the now-shuttered island prison, and officials said the two planned to make an official announcement that would air on Fox News.

But critics of the Trump administration have called the effort a stunt and a distraction, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referring to the visit and the push to reopen the prison as “the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet.” Pelosi’s district includes the island and adjacent San Francisco.

“Make no mistake: this stupidity is a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from this Administration’s cruelest actions yet in their Big, Ugly Law, which takes food from children and rips health care from millions to give tax breaks to billionaires,” Pelosi said in a statement, referring to the recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress. “It remains to be seen how this Administration could possibly afford to spend billions to convert and maintain Alcatraz as a prison when they are already adding trillions of dollars to the national debt.”

President Trump has pushed for reopening the prison for months now, saying in a social media post that doing so would be a “symbol of Law, Order and JUSTICE.”

Trump said in the post that the structure would house the country’s “most ruthless and violent” offenders.

Alcatraz, a popular tourist attraction, closed as a prison in 1963 after federal officials said it was too expensive to operate.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

A Justice Department spokesperson said Bondi and Burgum were set to be briefed on the facility as part of their visit, and would be meeting with U.S. Park Police and other officials about what planning would be necessary to rehabilitate and reopen the facility as a prison.

Currently, the facility serves as a popular tourist attraction for visitors to San Francisco.

Bondi and Burgum on Thursday visited cells that at one point housed infamous criminals such as Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The two also toured Alcatraz’s power station, visiting dock and industry building.

Originally opened in 1934, the prison closed its doors to convicts in 1963 after federal officials determined it was too costly to operate.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the prison was roughly three times more costly to operate than any other such facility in the country, mostly because of its location on a 22-acre island.

The need to send in supplies, including food and fresh water for guards, operators and prisoners, meant that it was cheaper to open a new facility than to operate Alcatraz, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

For more than five decades now, the prison has functioned as a museum under the management of the National Park Service.

The island sees about 1.4 million visitors a year and generates around $60 million in annual revenue, according to the nonprofit Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, which works with the National Park Service to support national parks around the Golden Gate area.

Christine Lehnertz, the conservancy’s president and chief executive, described the possibility of closing Alcatraz as a landmark, and using it once again as a prison, as a mistake.

“Protecting Alcatraz means protecting a global site of reflection, where people come to learn and grow,” Lehnertz said in a statement. “If we lose that, we lose more than a landmark — we lose an opportunity to do better.”

In a statement, the conservancy said, “Reopening Alcatraz as a prison would erase decades of progress and miss the point of what this place has become.”

“The island is working — not as a prison, but as a national park that brings history, nature, and people together in a way few places can,” the statement continued.

For Alcatraz to operate again as a prison, Congress would have to pass legislation to remove National Environmental Policy Act and Historic Preservation Act requirements for the area.

If reopened, the facility would also have to be transferred back to the Bureau of Prisons for operation.

Local officials and Democrats have voiced strong opposition to reopening the facility as a prison.

“This is plain just stupid,” said Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), a former deputy Interior secretary. “They should know better than to turn a 60-year-old museum into a prison just because their boss got an idea from a movie he saw on television.”

In a social media post Thursday, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie also criticized the Trump administration’s effort.

“There is no realistic plan for Alcatraz to host anyone other than visitors,” he wrote in a post on X. “If the federal government has billions of dollars to spend in San Francisco, we could use that funding to keep our streets safe and clean and help our economy recover.”

Pelosi, in her statement, said efforts to reopen Alcatraz would face stiff opposition in Congress.

“Should reason not prevail and Republicans bring this absurdity before the Congress,” Pelosi said in a statement, “Democrats will use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to stop the lunacy.”