When federal investigators showed up unannounced at the sprawling pop-up prison in the Florida Everglades in January, they found something they had never seen at any other immigration detention center in the country: Detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” were being held for up to nearly two hours in small metal cages roughly the size of a phone booth.

The practice at the now-shuttered facility is “unprecedented,” presents “significant risks to detainee health and safety,” and “does not align with standards for humane treatment,” according to a recently released 33-page report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General, which detailed a litany of failures at the state-built facility to comply with standards for medical care, personal hygiene, environmental safety and food service.

According to the report, between July 17, 2025, and Jan. 18, 2026, the facility confined 79 detainees in the small metal enclosures for periods of time ranging from several minutes to just shy of two hours, “a practice unlike any OIG team has observed in ICE facilities,” the report reads. The floor of the cages measured roughly 4 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 3 inches, and they stood 7 feet 9 inches tall, according to the report.

“The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment,” the report continues, adding that inspectors observed “locking mechanisms” on the cages.

The report gives a rare glimpse into the sprawling makeshift facility that was built in a matter of days by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration. From the start, human rights watchdogs and those held inside sounded the alarm about a facility they said imprisoned detainees without any charges, violated their constitutional rights, and subjected them to inhumane and unsanitary conditions. Democratic state lawmakers and outside observers were barred from inspecting the compound, which, along with another state-run immigration detention center, carries an estimated $1 billion price tag. And yet the hastily built facility and the DeSantis administration officials behind it have largely avoided oversight and accountability from Florida’s Republican-dominated state Legislature, where lawmakers last week signed off on another $250 million funding request for the state agency that built the compound.

Asked about the inspector general’s findings at a news conference Monday, DeSantis said he hadn’t read the report but defended Florida’s unprecedented work to carry out federal immigration enforcement. 

“No one’s stepped up to the level we have,” DeSantis said. 

“And the fact that we represent 6.5-7% of the U.S. population and yet we account for between 40% and 50% of all state and local immigration arrests, you know, that should tell you that we’re really doing it right,” he added. 

Doubling down on an approach that made “Alligator Alcatraz” a national symbol of the state’s aggressive immigration crackdown, a spokesperson for DeSantis told the Miami Herald that the administration would make the metal cages “even smaller” if they could.

Amnesty International had previously detailed allegations that detainees were being confined for hours in a small metal cage known as “the box” as punishment, treatment that the human rights organization said “amounts to torture.”

Meanwhile, attorneys for environmental organizations that filed suit against the facility said the findings of the inspector general’s report show the compound was not only “damaging to the Everglades” but also “cruel beyond measure.”

“The report reveals the depraved disregard for life that drove enormous human suffering and extensive environmental destruction in the Everglades,” said Elise Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Trump and DeSantis’s obsession with spectacle and cruelty has hurt people, irreplaceable natural treasures and Floridians, who’ll be footing the bill for this monstrosity for years to come.”

Nearly two hours in a metal cage

The findings of the inspector general’s report aligned with many of the concerns raised by detainees, their families and their attorneys since the earliest days of the facility. 

Inspectors found detainees held in cramped housing units ringed by chain-link fencing that limited them to 28 square feet per detainee, “well below the required minimum.” At the time of the inspection, detainees in certain housing units had no access to a law library or legal materials, and telephones installed shortly before the inspection were inoperable, leaving detainees without the ability to call their attorneys or ICE case workers.

Inspectors documented showers infested with bugs, interviewed detainees who said they “did not have access to clean drinking water,” and found that medical providers onsite were not properly documenting the conditions of detainees experiencing withdrawal from drugs or alcohol, raising questions about their access to adequate medical care. (Symptoms of withdrawal can range from mild discomfort to severe seizures, and complications can be deadly.)

Detainees were limited to three showers a week, and just one hour of recreation time three days a week – far less than standards stipulate, the inspectors found. Additionally, some freezers at the site were operating above the recommended temperature, increasing the risk of foodborne illnesses for detainees and staff alike. 

The report’s most stunning finding was the “unprecedented” use of the phone booth-sized cages, which facility staff described as “calming areas.” 

Over the course of six months, nearly 80 detainees were held in the enclosures for an average of 59 minutes, with the shortest confinement lasting just under seven minutes and the longest stretching to one hour, 59 minutes and 18 seconds, just shy of the two-hour limit outlined in a facility policy. 

Federal inspectors were not able to confirm reports that detainees in the enclosures were at times subjected to direct sunlight, high temperatures, and denial of food or water. 

Still, the report noted that “[c]onfining individuals in small metal enclosures for any reason presents significant risks to detainee health and well-being.”

Who’s in charge?

Even DHS’ Inspector General couldn’t quite get to the bottom of one of the most fundamental questions around the facility: who was actually in charge?

Federal officials maintained that DHS did not have any formal contract with the state of Florida to run the site, the report states, and ICE documents that list the “contractually obligated standards for each detention facility showed ‘N/A’,” for the South Florida facility.

When federal inspectors questioned the facility’s leadership and staff – who were employed by a private contractor – they couldn’t get a consistent answer as to which detention standards the facility was operating under, which “increases the risk that detainees may not receive appropriate care,” the report reads. 

“[O]ne official stated it was ‘so gray as to whose place this is…and which standards to follow’,” the report continues.

Florida officials announced plans to close the facility in June, declaring the site had served its purpose – as federal court challenges dragged on and the costs of running the remote facility ballooned. At the time, federal officials said detainees were transferred out of “Alligator Alcatraz” because of hurricane-season safety concerns. ICE did not disclose how many detainees were moved or where they were taken.

While the DeSantis administration has shuttered “Alligator Alcatraz,” the DHS inspector general’s report notes that the findings regarding the immigration detention center “remain consequential.” 

Florida is still operating yet another state-run immigration detention facility dubbed “Deportation Depot,” which as of Aug. 27, 2026 held 1,028 detainees, according to the report. Federal documents detailing contractually obligated detention standards for that facility state simply “N/A,” like the Everglades facility before it. 

Kate Payne is The Florida Trib’s state government reporter. She can be reached at kate.payne@floridatrib.org