‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainees were held in cages the size of a phone booth

A Department of Homeland Security inspector general report found that ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ the Florida-built immigration detention facility, held 79 detainees in metal cages roughly the size of a phone booth for stretches up to nearly two hours between July 2025 and January 2026. The 33-page report calls the practice ‘unprecedented’ among ICE facilities and says it fails to meet standards for humane treatment, alongside findings of bug-infested showers, inoperable phones, undocumented withdrawal cases, and freezers running above safe temperatures.

Detainees got three showers a week and three hours of recreation weekly, both below standard, while housing units packed detainees into 28 square feet each. Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference he had not read the report but defended the facility's arrest numbers, and a spokesperson told the Miami Herald the state would make the cages ‘even smaller’ if it could.

Florida's Legislature approved another $250 million for the agency that built the roughly $1 billion facility even as environmental and rights groups suing over the site called its conditions ‘cruel beyond measure’ and pointed to damage in the Everglades.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.