The federal Bureau of Prisons has lots of problems. Reopening Alcatraz is now one of them

Eleven inmate deaths in less than two months. More than 4,000 staff vacancies. A $3 billion repair backlog.

And now, a stunning directive from President Donald Trump for the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons to “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” — the notorious penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay that last held inmates more than 60 years ago.

Even as the Bureau of Prisons struggles with short staffing, chronic violence and crumbling infrastructure at its current facilities, Trump is counting on the agency to fulfill his vision of rebooting the infamously inescapable prison known in movies and pop culture as “The Rock.”

Trump declared in a social media post Sunday that a “substantially enlarged and rebuilt” Alcatraz will house the nation’s “most ruthless and violent Offenders.” It will “serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE," he wrote on Truth Social.

Newly appointed Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III said Monday that the agency “will vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda” and that he has ordered “an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps.”

“USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice,” Marshall said in a statement, echoing Trump’s post. “We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission.”

Alcatraz, a 22-acre (8.9 hectare) islet with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline, was once the crown jewel of the federal prison system and home to some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including gangsters Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

But skyrocketing repair and supply costs compelled the Justice Department to close the prison in 1963, just 29 years after it opened, and the Bureau of Prisons has long since replaced Alcatraz with modern penitentiaries, including a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado.

The former and perhaps future penitentiary is now a popular tourist attraction and a national historic landmark. It’s controlled by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, meaning the Bureau of Prisons could be in for an interagency tug of war if it tries to wrest away control of the island.

Trump’s Alcatraz directive is yet another challenge for the Bureau of Prisons as it struggles to fix lingering problems while responding to the president’s priorities on incarceration and immigrant detention. The agency’s mission, as redefined under Trump, includes taking in thousands of immigration detainees under an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security.

The problems at the Bureau of Prisons transcend administrations and facilities.

An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons over the last few years, including widespread criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, the free flow of guns, drugs and other contraband, and severe understaffing that has hampered responses to emergencies.

Last year, then-President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the agency. It remains the Justice Department’s largest agency, with more than 30,000 employees, 155,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion, but the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures have eliminated some pay bonuses that were credited with retaining and attracting new staff.

That has resulted in long overtime shifts for some workers and the continued use of a policy known as augmentation, where prison nurses, cooks, teachers and other workers are pressed into duty to guard inmates.

Infrastructure is buckling, too. A Bureau of Prisons official told Congress at a hearing in February that more than 4,000 beds within the system — the equivalent of at least two full prisons — are unusable because of dangerous conditions like leaking or failing roofs, mold, asbestos or lead.

Since mid-March, 11 federal prison inmates have died. They include David Knezevich, a 37-year-old Florida businessman who was found dead April 28 in a suspected suicide at a federal jail in Miami. He was awaiting trial on charges he kidnapped and killed his estranged wife in Spain.

And on April 24, inmate Ramadhan Jaabir Justice was killed in a fight at the federal penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, where he was serving a nearly 11-year sentence for a conviction related to an armed robbery.

As Trump was ordering Alcatraz’s reopening Sunday, correctional officers at the same Miami jail were fighting to curb the spread of tuberculosis and COVID-19, isolating inmates after they tested positive for the diseases. Last month, immigration detainees at the facility ripped out a fire sprinkler and flooded a holding cell during a lengthy intake process.

Meanwhile, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Alcatraz, the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, has sat idle for more than a year after the Bureau of Prisons cleared it of inmates in the wake of rampant sexual abuse by employees, including the warden.

In December, the agency made the closure permanent and idled six prison camps across the country to address “significant challenges, including a critical staffing shortage, crumbling infrastructure and limited budgetary resources.”

While Trump hails Alcatraz as a paragon of the federal prison system’s cherished past, other facilities stand as reminders of its recent troubles.

They include the federal jail in Manhattan, which remains idle after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there in 2019 exposed deep flaws in its operations, and a troubled federal lockup in Brooklyn, where 23 inmates have been charged in recent months with crimes ranging from smuggling weapons in a Doritos bag to the stabbing last month of a man convicted in the killing of hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay.

A bird flies above Alcatraz Island on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Visitors tour the prison cells on Alcatraz Island Monday, May 5, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

A visitor looks at the warden's house at Alcatraz Island on Monday, May 5, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Visitors tour Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

Alcatraz Island is pictured on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok is preventing non-paying users from generating or editing images after a global backlash erupted over sexualized deepfakes of people, but the change has not satisfied authorities in Europe.

The chatbot, which is accessed through Musk's social media platform X, has in the past few weeks been granting a wave of what researchers say are malicious user requests to modify images, including putting women in bikinis or in sexually explicit positions.

Researchers have warned that in a few cases, some images appeared to depict children. Governments around the world have condemned the platform and opened investigations.

On Friday, Grok responded to image altering requests with the message: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.”

While subscriber numbers for Grok aren't publicly available, there was a noticeable decline Friday in the number of explicit deepfakes that Grok is now generating compared with just days earlier.

Grok was still granting image requests but only from X users with blue checkmarks given to premium subscriber who pay $8 a month for features including higher usage limits for the chatbot.

An X spokesperson didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.

The restrictions for users save for paying subscribers did not appear to change the opinions of leaders or regulators in Europe.

“This doesn't change our fundamental issue. Paid subscription or non-paid subscription, we don't want to see such images. It's as simple as that,” said Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Union's executive Commission. The Commission had earlier slammed Grok for “illegal” and “appalling” behavior.

The British government was also unsatisfied.

Grok’s changes are “not a solution," said Geraint Ellis, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who on Thursday had threatened unspecified action against X.

“In fact, it is insulting to the victims of misogyny and sexual violence,” he said, noting that it shows that X “can move swiftly when it wants to do so.”

“We expect rapid action,” he said, adding that “all options are on the table.”

Starmer, speaking to Greatest Hits radio, had said that X needs to "get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”

The U.K.'s media and privacy regulators both said this week they’ve contacted X and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI for information on measures taken to comply with British regulations.

France, Malaysia and India have also been scrutinizing the platform and a Brazilian lawmaker has called for an investigation. The European Commission has ordered X to retain all internal documents and data relating to Grok until the end of 2026, as part of a wider investigation under the EU’s digital safety law.

Grok is free to use for X users, who can ask it questions on the social media platform. They can either tag it in posts they've directly created or in replies to posts from other users.

Grok launched in 2023. Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.

The problem is amplified both because Musk pitches his chatbot as an edgier alternative to rivals with more safeguards, and because Grok’s images are publicly visible, and can therefore be easily spread.

AP writers Jill Lawless in London and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

FILE - Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)