Alligator Alcatraz federal report details overcrowding, health concerns

And bug infested showers. Detainees crammed into tiny metal cages. The new report exposing horrific conditions at a now closed Florida detention center. And we do start today with that breaking news. The new details on that report on alligator Alcatraz. The feds today describing the terrible conditions they saw inside that detention facility. And we thank you for joining us at five. I'm Jack Royer. And I'm Luanne Sorrell. They say the conditions were something they have never seen ever before. Fox 35's Marie Edinger is joining us live now. So Marie, you've been combing through this new report all day long. Yeah, the report combs through a bunch of different things and raises concerns about standards of care. They say they couldn't find anywhere that was written out or explained in any way for the facility operators to follow. It raises concerns about not only those small areas that the inmates were housed in, but also access to clean water and safe food. Significant risks to detainee health and safety. That's what inspectors with the Department of Homeland Security say they found in an unannounced visit to alligator Alcatraz and its 1500 detainees back in January, around six months after it opened. The first issue listed severe overcrowding. Take a look at this. The OIG's report states the units were just over a third the size they were supposed to be and that detainees weren't given adequate recreation time, meaning they spent nearly their entire day cramped into these windowless pods surrounded by metal fencing. But the thing that really caught inspectors off guard were these outdoor metal enclosures, 18 square foot boxes. The OIG says dozens of different detainees were kept in for hours at a time over the course of months. For context, that's a metal crate smaller than a twin mattress, a practice the OIG described as highly unconventional and not aligned with standards for humane treatment. When I asked Governor Ron DeSantis about the OIG's allegations, his office got back to me with a statement saying, quote, we'd make it even smaller if we could. The OIG's concerns for health and safety didn't stop there, though. The report notes inmates didn't have access to potable water and were given food stored well above recommended temperatures. Detainees were only allowed to shower three days a week in bathrooms infested with bugs. The report says inmates weren't given access to working phones or to legal materials they would normally be provided. The undersecretary for management at DHS passed along 10 recommendations for how to fix those problems, but ICE tossed them out when Alligator Alcatraz shut down in June of 2026, just under a year after it first opened. ICE responded to these allegations by saying this was a facility run by the state of Florida, not by them. But the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General says that's a miscategorization, that they were involved in the maintenance and management and setting up of this facility. And the OIG continued by saying that's especially concerning of a response because there is still Deportation Depot opened in North Florida, and that hasn't been inspected yet.