Fox News commentary is already going to bat for President Donald Trump's off-the-cuff proposal to reopen the long-defunct federal prison on Alcatraz Island — and smacking down Democratic criticism of the idea. Gregg Jarrett led the charge on Monday's edition of "Fox & Friends."
"You know, progressives frown on prisons, they tend to favor nanny daycare for hardened criminals," said Jarrett, who has gotten into his own trouble with the law in the past, "and Alcatraz, pretty forbidding, frigid place, housed Al Capone, 'Machine Gun' Mickey Cohen. It is, however, federal property, so this can be done." He did, however, acknowledge, it would have to be "rebuilt almost entirely."
That is the principal reason USP Alcatraz, known to be one of the most impregnable penitentiaries in the U.S. due to its location on an isolated rock surrounded by the San Francisco Bay, was shut down in the 1960s, as it required exorbitant renovations to continue functioning and the federal government decided it wasn't worth the cost. Already, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, it cost almost three times as much to house an inmate at Alcatraz than a typical federal prison. The facility is now used as a national park and popular tourist attraction.
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Modern-day prisons for the "worst of the worst" serial killers, mob bosses, and terrorists, like USP Florence ADMAX in Colorado, are already on par with the former facility at Alcatraz in their extreme inmate conditions and constant monitoring that renders escape impossible.
Trump proclaimed in his weekend Truth Social rant about Alcatraz that "We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally. The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE."
Democrats have sharply criticized the idea, with California state Sen. Scott Wiener saying the president "wants to turn Alcatraz into a domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay," and California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying through a spokesperson, "Trump is pledging to reopen Alcatraz as American consumers feel the financial pinch of his unpopular tariffs and he continues to tussle with the courts over mass deportations of immigrants."
