Trump requests $152m funding to restore Alcatraz as prison | San Francisco
Donald Trump wants $152 million to restore Alcatraz, a former federal prison on the San Francisco waterfront, according to his budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 released Friday.
Last May, Trump first called on the Justice Department, FBI and Homeland Security to rebuild the prison. He praised Alcatraz’s reputation in Truth Social to post.
“In the past, when we were a more serious nation, we would not hesitate to put the most dangerous criminals in prison and keep them away from anyone they could harm. This is the way it was supposed to be,” he wrote at the time. “The reopening of Alcatraz will serve as a symbol of law, order and justice.”
The plan was controversial. Some elected officials in California have questioned the feasibility and value of such an initiative.
Currently, Alcatraz has no water, electricity, gas or sewage systems. based on According to San Francisco Standard.
California state senator Scott Wiener’s office estimated this week that rebuilding the property would cost more than $2 billion, KQED reported.
last year one report The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, joined CBS Sacramento in denouncing Trump’s vision as a “tremendously bad fiscal idea,” adding: “Nothing about this makes sense.”
On Friday, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a press release: “Rebuilding Alcatraz into a modern prison is a foolish idea that is nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars and an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
According to the budget proposal, the administration will use $152 million to cover the first year expenses of the restoration project. It’s unclear what the timeline will be for reopening the property if the plan moves forward.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The figure is part of a larger $1.7 billion request to fund the Bureau of Prisons’ “collapsing detention facilities.”
The maximum security prison housed some of the country’s most notorious criminals from 1934 until it closed in 1963.
Called “The Rock,” Alcatraz’s location on an island made escape difficult but also made operations costly. According to the Bureau of Prisons, maintenance costs caused the facility to close. It has since become a vaunted historical site that attracts more than a million tourists every year.
