April 3 (UPI) -- The Trump Administration has requested $152 million in its fiscal year 2027 federal budget proposal to refurbish and reopen Alcatraz as a prison.
President Donald Trump first broached the idea of reopening the prison on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay in May 2025, but with the administration's release of its budget proposal to Congress he is looking to put his plan in motion.
Alcatraz was closed in 1963 after 30 years as an active prison that has become famous for its former inmates and stories of attempted escapes, but has long been a popular tourist attraction that sees more than one million people per year visit the island, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
In the budget proposal, the administration argued that restoring Alcatraz is an appropriate response to the federal Bureau of Prisons housing "violent criminals in crumbling detention centers."
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