America News Agency

In a message posted Sunday on Truth Social, Trump claimed that America has long struggled with wild, violent, and repeat offenders, and that reopening Alcatraz would serve as a "symbol of law, order, and justice."

The prison was closed in 1963 and the island of Alcatraz now operates as a tourist attraction located near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

According to Trump, the prison will "house America’s most ruthless and violent criminals."

Originally, Alcatraz was a coastal defense fort and was rebuilt in the early 20th century as a military prison. In the 1930s, the Department of Justice took it over and began accepting inmates from the federal prison system. Its most infamous prisoners included gangsters Al Capone, Mickey Cohen, and George "Machine Gun" Kelly.

The prison also became famous thanks to the 1962 film *Birdman of Alcatraz*, starring Burt Lancaster, which told the story of convicted murderer Robert Stroud, who became an expert ornithologist while serving a life sentence on the island.

It was also the filming location for the 1996 movie *The Rock*, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, about a former SAS captain and an FBI chemist rescuing hostages from the island.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, the prison was closed due to the high cost of operation. Because of its island location, it was nearly three times more expensive to maintain than other federal prisons.