Kathrine Frich
Charlie Hopkins, 93, spent three years behind bars on Alcatraz Island.
Charlie Hopkins, 93, spent three years behind bars on Alcatraz Island.
Now, as President Donald Trump calls to reopen the notorious prison, Hopkins has a blunt response:
“You can’t go back in time. That place is deader than the convicts it held.”
The Last Living Alcatraz Inmate Speaks Out
Believed to be the final surviving former prisoner of Alcatraz, Hopkins shared his views in an interview with the BBC.
Though a Trump supporter himself, he dismissed the plan to rebuild the prison as “just trying to get a point across.”
“He Don’t Really Want to Open That Place”
Hopkins served time in the 1950s for kidnapping and robbery.
Reflecting on his stint on the Rock, he laughed off Trump’s plan.
“It would be so expensive,” he said, recalling the outdated sewage system and the prison’s harsh conditions.
Alcatraz, Then and Now
Originally a military prison, Alcatraz became a high-security federal penitentiary that held some of America’s most infamous criminals.
It closed in 1963 and is now a tourist attraction drawing over 1 million visitors annually.
Trump’s Symbolic Play for ‘Law and Order’
Earlier this month, President Trump said Alcatraz could once again become “a symbol of law, order and justice.”
He announced plans to direct federal agencies to rebuild and reopen the facility on a grander scale.
Skepticism From Inside and Out
Hopkins isn’t alone in his skepticism. Critics have questioned the feasibility and intent behind reviving a long-defunct prison, calling it more spectacle than strategy.
For Hopkins, it’s all a nostalgic fantasy: “That place belongs to the past.”
Costly and Complicated
Beyond symbolism, reactivating Alcatraz would require extensive renovations, from rebuilding infrastructure to environmental upgrades.
Hopkins dryly pointed out that “back then, the sewage system went into the ocean.”
A Place of Legends and Escape Stories
From Al Capone to the Birdman of Alcatraz, the prison remains etched in American cultural memory.
The most famous tale? The 1962 escape of three inmates using spoons and a raft made of raincoats, still a mystery to this day.