U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated housing detained migrants at the infamous Alcatraz prison would be “cost saving,” despite the federal penitentiary closing because of its pricey upkeep.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he had directed “Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
Bondi doubled down on the president’s order on Monday. During a Fox News interview, the attorney general said she is “all for” reopening Alcatraz, adding that she thinks “it will be cost saving.”
“We’ll have specially trained guards. They’ll be in isolation. They won’t be able to run their businesses, and it sends a very strong message that if you do this, you are going to be out of our society forever,” Bondi stated.
“Had these guys been housed at Alcatraz, this would’ve never ever happened,” she continued. “They’re drug dealers. They’re the worst of the worst, and they’re killers,” she added in a clip circulating on X.
Before Alcatraz closed its doors in 1963, a report revealed it was three times more expensive to detain prisoners on the island than it was at any other U.S. prison. At the time, the cost per prisoner per day reached $10 compared to $3 elsewhere, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Furthermore, to restore and maintain it will cost an estimated $3 to $5 million.
Originally published on Latin Times
