Trump Announces Reopening: "The Old Way Was Right"
Netizens Mock, "Did He Decide After Watching TV the Day Before?"
The infamous "Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary," once considered the most notorious prison in the United States, is expected to be revived after more than 60 years.
According to AFP on May 5 (local time), there is mockery online suggesting that President Trump made this decision after watching TV.
U.S. President Donald Trump previously stated, "Our old way of locking up the most dangerous criminals and keeping them far away from people they could harm was the right approach." He then mentioned that the Federal Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, would undertake a large-scale expansion to reopen Alcatraz.
This incident was made into a movie in 1979 under the title "Escape from Alcatraz," starring Clint Eastwood. Because of this, there are suspicions online that President Trump suddenly decided to reopen Alcatraz after watching TV. The day before President Trump mentioned this, on May 3, the movie was aired on a TV channel in southern Florida. This is the region where President Trump usually spends his weekends at the Mar-a-Lago estate.
AFP also reported that, until President Trump mentioned reopening Alcatraz, there had been no prior indications related to this, which supports these claims.
AFP conveyed the sarcastic reactions of local netizens, such as, "It's ingenious to get U.S. policy from TV," and, "An old man flipped through TV channels and ended up spending $500 million to renovate Alcatraz."
Located on a rocky island about 2.4 kilometers from San Francisco, Alcatraz Prison was originally a military prison during the Civil War and was operated as a federal prison by the government for 29 years from 1934 to 1963. After its closure in 1963, it was transformed into a tourist attraction managed by the National Park Service, drawing more than one million visitors annually.
According to the FBI, Alcatraz was geographically and structurally impossible to escape from. Its security was designed to be much tighter than ordinary prisons, and inmates were strictly controlled. In addition, the prison was surrounded on all sides by cold, turbulent waters, so those who attempted to escape were either captured or drowned.
Notorious criminals such as mafia boss Al Capone, Prohibition-era bootlegger George Kelly, and Irish gang leader Whitey Bulger were incarcerated here.
The only escape case that remains unsolved is the 1962 breakout by inmates Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin, who carried out their escape after two years of meticulous planning. They broke through the wall using old saw blades and made life vests and a raft out of raincoats to escape the island. Authorities concluded that they drowned, but since their bodies were never found, the case remains a mystery.
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