US President Donald Trump has directed his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the former prison on an island off the coast of California. On a social media platform yesterday, President Trump said that for too long America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders, and the reopening of Alcatraz would serve as a “symbol of law, order, and justice. The prison was closed in 1963, and Alcatraz Island is currently operating as a tourist site. It lies near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz was originally a naval defence fort, and it was rebuilt in the early 20th Century as a military prison. The Department of Justice took it over in the 1930s, and it began taking in convicts from the federal prison system.