ArcaMax

WASHINGTON -- Forget rehabbing Alcatraz, President Donald Trump, as you proposed on social media over the weekend. It's not worth the years and treasure that would be needed to turn the popular tourist destination back into a maximum-security prison for the worst federal offenders.

Instead, think Nevada.

Nevada delivered six Electoral College votes for you in 2024.

California? Nada.

Officials in the NIMBY state would see your brainchild Alcatraz as an invitation for sabotage and litigation. Nevada would see opportunity.

Besides, even when the establishment is on board, it takes forever to get anything done in California.

When an earthquake caused a section of the Bay Bridge to collapse in 1989, and the eastern span was deemed unsafe, Northern California politicians dithered. It took more than a decade to begin a needed retrofit, and the job was not completed until 2013 -- 23 years after the Loma Prieta temblor revealed structural vulnerability.

In 2008, California voters approved a bond measure to fund the California High Speed Rail project, with an expected completion date of 2020.

It's 2025, and not a single track has been laid. A project that was projected to cost $33 billion in 2008 exceeded the $100 billion mark some five years ago.

In California, failure is an option.

And money is no object -- until some residents look around at what they can afford in other states.

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported, about twice as many Californians moved to Nevada as Nevadans moved to California in 2023. Silver State housing prices, which have risen because of the influx of former Californians, nonetheless look like a bargain.

Battle Born Nevada knows how to get the job done.

As the RJ has reported, of nearly 2,300 residential and commercial permits issued in Las Vegas last year, around 90% were advanced in three days. Credit a can-do posture rarely seen in the California NIMBY state.

And Nevada has land. Lots of land.

The Trump Department of Justice could build a big, beautiful penitentiary in the middle of the state, and there wouldn't be a NIMBY for miles.

The federal government already manages more than 80% of the land in Nevada, so acquiring the right property should be no problem.

Trump invoked Alcatraz as part of his commitment to, as he wrote on social media, "lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm." That's a good cause.

Toward that end, the president envisions a federal penitentiary that is "substantially enlarged and rebuilt" to house America's most ruthless and violent offenders.

He should just say no to Alcatraz. And yes, to ... well, maybe Area 51.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.

----

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.