Alcatraz prison, closed in 1963, will reopen its doors, said United States President Donald Trump.
“We are rebuilding and reopening Alcatraz! For too long, America has suffered at the hands of violent recidivists, the dregs of society who will never bring anything but suffering and torment. When we were a more serious country, in the past, we had no qualms about putting the most dangerous criminals in prison and keeping them away from anyone they could harm. That's the way it should be“, he wrote in Truth Social, adding that the country will no longer tolerate those who “sow evil, bloodshed and chaos on the streets of American cities”.
Trump explained that he had ordered the reopening of “Alcatraz“ by the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.
The president said that the United States would no longer be held hostage by “judges who are afraid to do their jobs and allow us to remove criminals who came to our country illegally“. According to him, the reopening of the prison “will become a symbol of law, order and justice“.
The prison is located on the island of the same name in San Francisco Bay. In 1912, a prison building called “Alcatraz“ was built on the island, which was full of prisoners by 1920. “The Rock“, as the prison was unofficially called, was the first in the United States to be used for long-term detention of military personnel and became “famous“ for its severity towards those who violated discipline. In 1936, the authorities decided to transfer the prison under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice.
Famous gangsters such as Al Capone, George Kelly Barnes, Machine Gun and Kelly Robert Stroud, known as the Birdman, were sent to “Alcatraz“. Over the years of its existence, there were 14 attempts to escape from the prison, but none were successful - no one survived the cold waters of the bay. In 1963, “Alcatraz“ was closed.