Trump Wants to Bring Back Alcatraz as Prison for Worst Offenders

Crossroads with Joshua Philipp

The Epoch Times

Education, Government

4.9 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alcatraz could soon be reopened as a prison. The facility on a small island in San Francisco was closed as a prison in 1963 and has since been turned into a tourist destination.

But President Donald Trump says he wants the facility reopened to house the most dangerous criminals. And while some have suggested the prison is not feasible because of its limited space and high maintenance costs, Trump says it will act as a symbol of law and order.

Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	President Donald Trump says he wants to reopen Alcatraz.
0:04.0	The facility on an island in San Francisco has been closed as a prison since 1963 and has become a tourist destination.
0:12.0	But Trump says he wants the facility reopened to house the country's most dangerous criminals.
0:18.0	The Trump administration is also offering illegal immigrants $1,000 and free
0:23.0	flights anybody who self-deports using the CBP Home App and what the DHS is now calling a
0:30.0	dignified way to leave the United States. And meanwhile, in a related note, Rwanda has confirmed it is in the early stage of talks with the United States about taking in deported illegal immigrants.
0:44.1	I'm the Epic Times Senior Investigative reporter Joshua Phillip, and this is Crossroads.
1:03.1	Alcatraz, it could be reopened soon. We could see Alcatraz come back in the United States as a fully functioning prison.
1:12.2	And the facility on a small island in San Francisco, it's been closed since 1963. It actually wasn't even open, it wasn't even open that long, by the way.
1:17.8	Since then, it's been turned into a tourist destination. President Donald Trump says he wants the facility reopened and he wants the most dangerous criminals in the country to go there.
1:23.2	It'll be our own little Arkham Asylum. And while some have suggested the prison is actually not
1:28.1	feasible or sustainable, because it doesn't have a lot of space and it actually costs an
1:33.0	insane amount of money to keep up, Trump says it's a symbol, and he wants that as a symbol of
1:38.1	law and order. This is what he had to say in an official post on it. He said this, quote,
1:43.2	Rebuild and Open Alcatraz, for too long
1:45.9	America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders, the dregs of society
1:51.7	who will never contribute anything other than misery and suffering. He said that when we were a more
1:57.1	serious nation in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals
2:02.4	and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. And he said that's the way it's supposed to be.
2:08.2	No longer will we tolerate these serial offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets.
2:15.7	That is why today I'm directing the Bureau of Prisons,
2:18.7	together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security to reopen a substantially
	...

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