Donald Trump wants to reopen the famous prison Alcatraz. The prison is an island in San Francisco Bay. It was in use between 1934 and 1963. Prisoners who stayed there included the gangster Al Capone. Officially, no one ever escaped alive from the prison. In 1973, Alcatraz opened to the public. It became a tourist attraction. President Trump wants it to return to keeping dangerous criminals. He said Alcatraz was a symbol of law and order. He added: "America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders."
The USA's head of border control likes the idea of reopening Alcatraz. He said it could be "an option for significant public safety threats". However, some people think it should not become a prison again. A former head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons disagreed with the idea. He said: "It's not realistic to think you can repair it. You'd have to tear it up and start over." He said some buildings were "literally falling apart". He pointed out some of the problems. He said: "There are no security upgrades. No cameras. No fencing. You can't run a prison [like that]."
Try the same news story at these levels:
Alcatraz - Level 0, Alcatraz - Level 1 or Alcatraz - Level 3
Sources- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly5d9yzr7wo
- https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/05/us/trump-alcatraz-prison-history-hnk
- https://www.npr.org/2025/05/05/nx-s1-5387239/trump-alcatraz-reopen
Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)