NEW YORK — President Trump has ordered his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the famous former jail on a hard-to-reach island off the coast of San Francisco, California. It has been closed for more than 60 years.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social site on Sunday night, “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering.” In the past, when our country was more serious, we didn’t think twice about locking up the worst thieves and keeping them away from anyone they could hurt. “That’s the right way to do it.”

“That’s why I’m telling the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and Homeland Security to reopen a much bigger and better ALCATRAZ to house America’s worst and most violent criminals today,” he said.

Trump’s order to rebuild and reopen the long-closed jail was the latest step in his plan to change where and how federal prisoners and immigration detainees are held. But making such a move would probably be hard and cost a lot of money. Things at the prison had to be brought by boat for everything, including food and fuel, which made repairs and supplies very expensive. The prison was closed in 1963.

Bringing the building up to current standards would cost a lot of money at a time when the Bureau of Prisons is closing prisons with similar infrastructure problems.

The prison, which was called “The Rock” because of the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific seas that surrounded it, was home to some of the country’s most notorious criminals, such as Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

It’s been a part of culture for a long time and has been the subject of many films, such as “The Rock,” with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.

Still, the FBI says that 36 men tried 14 different escapes during the 29 years it was open. Almost all of them were caught or didn’t make it through the try.

There are different opinions on what happened to John Anglin, his brother Clarence, and Frank Morris, three prisoners. The story of their lives was told in the 1979 movie “Escape from Alcatraz,” which starred Clint Eastwood.

Since it was made a National Historic Landmark, Alcatraz Island is now a popular place for tourists. It is run by the National Park Service.

Trump came up with the idea after a weekend in Florida. He told reporters at the White House on Sunday night that he was fed up with “radicalised judges” who insisted people being removed get due process. He said that Alcatraz has always been a “symbol of law and order.” It has a long past, you know.

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the agency “will comply with all Presidential Orders.” The spokesperson did not immediately answer questions from The Associated Press regarding the practicality and feasibility of reopening Alcatraz or the agency’s role in the future of the former jail given the National Park Service’s control of the island.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat whose district includes the island, questioned the feasibility of reopening the jail after so many years. “It’s now a very popular national park and a big draw for tourists.” “The President’s idea is not a good one,” she wrote on X.

The island is like going back in time to a different time when prisons were run differently. There are currently 16 high-security prisons run by the Bureau of Prisons, such as Alcatraz. These include the Bureau’s highest security prison in Florence, Colorado, and the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is home to the federal death chamber.

Trump has also ordered that a prison be built in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 of what he calls the “worst criminal aliens.”

In the past few years, the Bureau of Prisons has been through a lot of problems. Since Jeffrey Epstein’s death at a federal prison in New York City in 2019, the agency has been under even more scrutiny. An investigation by the AP found major problems with the Bureau of Prisons that had not been mentioned before. According to reports from the Associated Press, many employees are breaking the law, there have been dozens of escapes, there is constant violence, there have been deaths, and there are serious staffing shortages that make it harder to handle emergencies like assaults and suicides.

The AP’s investigation also found that a federal women’s jail in Dublin, California, had a lot of sexual abuse going on. After AP reported on the agency’s many problems last year, President Joe Biden signed a law that made it easier to keep an eye on it.

At the same time, the Bureau of Prisons is going through a lot of changes. It just got a new head and has a new mission that includes housing thousands of immigration detainees in some of its prisons and jails as part of a deal with the Department of Homeland Security. In order to save money, the agency shut down a few sites last year. They are now building a new prison in Kentucky.