The military fort, Alcatraz Island, became an army prison in San Francisco Bay and is best known for operating as a federal prison from 1934 to 1963.
The distinction is being challenged after more than 50 years of functionality has been working as popular tourist destinations attract the attention of President Donald Trump, who wants to bring national parks back to prison.
On social media, Trump has told federal agencies that he has reopened the vast expansion and rebuilding of Alcatraz and incarcerated America’s most ruthless and violent criminals.
Trump said the Alcatraz prison, also known as the “rock,” is a “symbol of law and order,” but that such an idealistic emblem is a realistic expense for taxpayers. History shows that the islands operating as prisons were too expensive.
Why was the Alcatraz Federal Prison too expensive?
The Alcatraz Federal Prison was officially closed more than 62 years ago. According to the Federal Prison Bureau, the largest security minimum prison prisons have been operating for nearly 30 years, but were closed as it takes three times more to run Alcatraz than other federal prisons.
By comparison, Alcatraz, which runs per prisoner, spent daily in 1959 at $10.10, or $106.25, adjusted for inflation. For US prisons, Atlanta, a low-security prison known as Atlanta, now a federal correctional facility, in 1902, had daily operating costs per prisoner of $3, or $31.56, adjusted for inflation.
Furthermore, if prisons implemented continuous operations, the crumbling Alcatraz had requested restoration and maintenance projects of up to $5 million, or more than $50 million, if adjusted for inflation.
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September 1979, Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
The reason for the high cost was the isolation of the island. All supplies of food, water, fuel, medicine, etc. had to be brought in by barges.
“The island had no source of freshwater so nearly a million gallons of water had to be dedicated to the island each week. The federal government has found that building new agencies is more cost-effective than keeping Alcatraz open.”
Why was the Alcatraz Federal Prison created?
The US Army used the island as a fort since 1850 to protect the San Francisco Bay during the California Gold Rush. The Army installed artillery on the island and also built the first operational lighthouse on the US West Coast.
However, the need to maintain Alcatraz as a fort was short-lived. The island never fired a gun, and within ten years the island became a military prison.
In 1933, ownership of the island was transferred from the military to the Department of Justice, allowing prison use.
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Views of Alcatraz Island and Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, USA on May 5, 2025.
According to the federal government’s Bureau of Prisons, the original Alcatraz concept of federal prisons was partly idealistic, as it was intended to “deal with the most unruly prisoner in federal prisons and show that the federal government was serious about stopping ramp-prolonged crimes of the 1920s and 1930s.”
The prisons never reached the capacity of 336 prisoners to hold an average of up to 275 prisoners.
Who was imprisoned at Alcatraz?
For decades, the Alcatraz Federal Prison has been an infamous part of modern American culture due to some of its inmates.
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Robert Stroud, known as “The Birdman of Alcatraz.”
One of the most notorious inmates is known as “The Birdman of Alcatraz,” popularized in a 1962 film starring Bart Lancaster of the same name. The inmate’s real name was Robert Stroud. Robert Stroud spent 54 years in prison in various institutions.
Stroud spent time at Leavenworth, a prison known as the Federal Correctional Facility in Leavenworth, behind bars in Kansas, Kansas. While in Kansas, Stroud became interested in birds and eventually wrote two bird books. Stroud was initially permitted to maintain and raise birds. However, the Prison Bureau notes that Lancaster’s paternal portrayal was not accurate for the convicted murderer.
“Stroud had no birds in Alcatraz, and he wasn’t the grandfather who was portrayed by Bert Lancaster in the famous film. In 1909, Stroud was convicted of manslaughter. Guard was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death “after that he would be converted into life in prison,” the agency wrote.
Other notoriously convicted offenders detained in Alcatraz:
Alcatraz had a well-known inmate, but the Federal Prison Bureau said most inmates were not famous gangs, but “inmates who refused to comply with rules and regulations of other federal agencies deemed violent and dangerous or at risk of fleeing.”
The FBI said 36 men tried to escape from Alcatraz in 14 separate attempts. Most were caught or unable to survive.
The most famous escape attempt was made into a drama in the 1979 film “Escape from Escape from Escape.” Clint Eastwood shows that John Anglin, Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris’ escape boldly escaped, but dramatized as “presumed to have owned dead missing.”
Will Trump be able to reopen Alcatraz as a prison again?
Alcatraz is currently managed by the National Parks Bureau under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Given that they are cabinet bodies operating under administrative agencies, President Trump has the authority to direct the agencies to return Alcatraz’s responsibility to prison under the Justice Department.
After Trump’s announcement regarding Alcatraz’s reopening, the Prison Bureau told The Associated Press that it will “comply with all executive orders.”
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Tourists will walk through Alcatraz Island’s main cell block on March 21, 2013 in San Francisco, California.
The Prison Bureau currently has 16 prisons performing the same high security functions as Alcatraz. Last year, the agency closed several facilities. A new prison is currently under construction in Kentucky, partly to cut costs.
Bringing facilities to modern standards requires large investments when the Bureau of Prisons was closing prisons due to similar infrastructure issues.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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