Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,
The White House on Friday requested $152 million to reopen Alcatraz, which is offshore from San Francisco, as a federal prison.
The funding appears in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027, released by the administration.
It would cover first-year costs for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to rebuild the island facility into “a state-of-the-art secure prison facility,” according to the document. Alcatraz has operated as a National Park Service tourist site since 1973, after the federal prison closed in 1963.
The request directly advances President Donald Trump’s earlier call to restore the prison. Congress treats such budget proposals as suggestions rather than guaranteed spending.
Trump first directed federal agencies to revive Alcatraz in May 2025.
In a social media post that month, he instructed the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, and other agencies to “reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
Trump said the project is a “symbol of law, order, and justice.”
The plan drew both support from those favoring tougher crime policies and resistance from Democrats concerned about costs and the island’s current use as a tourist attraction.
“It would also be a financial boondoggle—not just the massive amount it would cost to reopen Alcatraz as a prison, but all the money and goodwill the park service would lose from closing one of America’s most popular tourist destinations,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said in a statement in July 2025.
Alcatraz Island sits 1.25 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay. The current facility is 960,000 square feet, nearly the size of 17 football fields. Its frigid waters and powerful currents made it one of the nation’s most secure prisons during its operation. No successful escapes were ever officially recorded, though five inmates were listed as missing and presumed drowned. Alcatraz opened as a federal prison in 1934 and quickly earned a reputation for holding the country’s most notorious criminals.
Famous inmates included Chicago gangster Al Capone, Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. The Bureau of Prisons closed the facility in 1963, citing operating costs nearly three times higher than those of any other federal prison. The National Park Service later took control of it, and it became a popular tourist destination visited by more than a million people each year.
Trump’s current push revives a site long viewed as escape-proof. The latest budget request marks the first concrete federal funding step toward converting the island back into an active maximum-security prison.
Lawmakers will now review the proposal as part of broader spending negotiations.
