Federal inspectors found 79 documented uses of small metal enclosures at Florida’s now-closed immigration detention site. Staff called them voluntary “calming areas,” but records showed that at least one detainee was placed inside for disciplinary reasons.
WASHINGTON, D.C. | Published at 1:52 p.m. EDT
Detainees at the Florida immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” were confined inside small, lockable metal cages that staff described as “calming areas,” according to a newly released Department of Homeland Security watchdog report that found widespread failures involving living space, drinking water, recreation, sanitation and access to telephones.
The cages provided approximately 18 square feet of floor space, less than half the 37-square-foot minimum established for a single-person room under Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention standards, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found.
Facility records documented 79 instances in which detainees were placed inside the metal enclosures between July 17, 2025, and January 18, 2026. Some remained inside for as long as two hours.
Staff told inspectors that detainees asked to enter the enclosures voluntarily so they could calm down, de-escalate or spend time alone. The inspector general found evidence that complicated that explanation. At least one documented entry said a detainee was placed inside after he “failed to comply with a lawful command,” indicating that the cage had been used as a disciplinary measure.
The enclosures also had locking mechanisms.
“Use of these small metal enclosures for any reason is unprecedented among ICE facilities inspected by OIG,” the watchdog wrote, according to the published federal report.
The report concluded that confining people in such spaces presented significant risks to detainees’ health and well-being and did not align with federal standards for humane treatment.
The findings carry unusual weight because they did not originate with an advocacy organization, a political opponent or an anonymous account from inside the facility. They came from an internal federal oversight office responsible for examining whether DHS components and affiliated operations comply with their own rules.
For months, Florida officials disputed allegations of abuse and dangerous conditions at the Everglades detention center. The inspector general’s findings now provide official confirmation that the small cages existed, were repeatedly used and fell below ICE’s minimum space requirements.
The government called them “calming areas”
The language used to describe the enclosures is one of the most revealing parts of the report.
Facility officials did not formally characterize the cages as isolation cells or disciplinary segregation. They told inspectors the spaces were “calming areas” where detainees could voluntarily separate themselves from the general population.
Such a function could be legitimate if a private, safe and appropriately sized room were offered voluntarily to someone experiencing emotional distress. The physical structure and documentary evidence found at the facility presented a different picture.
The enclosures were small metal cages. They could be locked. Records showed repeated use over six months, and at least one recorded reason was disobedience to a staff command.
Detainees and human-rights investigators had previously referred to the enclosure as “The Box.”
The OIG found that detainees could remain inside for up to two hours. In South Florida’s tropical environment, confinement in an outdoor or insufficiently protected metal enclosure could expose an individual to heat, humidity, direct sunlight and mosquitoes. The report did not establish that every documented placement involved identical weather conditions or restraints, but it determined that the practice itself created substantial health and safety risks.
Staff members’ assertion that detainees requested the cages did not resolve the inspectors’ concerns. A request made inside a crowded detention unit, where a small cage may be the only available place to be alone, is not necessarily evidence that the space is appropriate or humane.
The presence of locks and the documented disciplinary use also raised questions about whether every placement was genuinely voluntary.
A detention complex built in the Everglades
The facility’s official name was the Florida Soft-Sided Facility. It was constructed at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Everglades and began holding detainees in July 2025.
Florida officials and supporters embraced the “Alligator Alcatraz” nickname, presenting the surrounding wetlands and wildlife as natural barriers against escape. The name became a symbol of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration-enforcement campaign and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s effort to position the state as a central partner in federal deportation operations.
The camp consisted largely of temporary structures and tents rather than permanent detention buildings. Florida’s Division of Emergency Management oversaw its operation using private guards while detainees were held for federal immigration authorities.
Federal inspectors conducted an unannounced visit in January 2026. The surprise inspection allowed them to observe ordinary conditions rather than a facility prepared in advance for a scheduled review.
By the time the watchdog’s findings became public, the site had closed. Florida officials ended detention operations in June 2026, citing the danger of holding people in temporary tent structures during hurricane season.
The closure prevents officials from correcting conditions at that particular location. It does not make the findings irrelevant.
The facility operated for nearly a year, reportedly held thousands of people and became a model discussed by officials seeking rapidly constructed detention capacity elsewhere. Its failures offer a warning about what can happen when governments build temporary detention centers quickly, divide responsibility among state and federal agencies, and begin operations before clear standards and oversight structures are established.
Cramped housing extended beyond “The Box”
The metal cages were not the only problem identified.
Inspectors said the facility failed to provide detainees with sufficient living space. People spent most of their time inside crowded housing units, conditions the OIG warned could damage both physical and mental health.
Detention standards do not exist merely to make facilities comfortable. Minimum space requirements affect sanitation, disease transmission, sleep, stress, personal safety and the ability of staff to respond to emergencies.
Crowding can also intensify conflict among detainees. When hundreds of people have little room to move, few opportunities for recreation and limited privacy, the likelihood that someone will experience distress increases. In that environment, describing a phone-booth-sized cage as the available place to “calm down” exposes a deeper institutional failure.
The facility’s recreation system was also inadequate, according to the watchdog. Detainees did not consistently receive sufficient time outside their housing units.
Regular recreation is included in federal detention standards because prolonged inactivity can contribute to physical decline, depression, anxiety and escalating tension. At a remote facility where detainees had limited contact with relatives or attorneys, meaningful time outside crowded living quarters took on added importance.
Detainees reported problems obtaining clean water
Multiple detainees interviewed during the January inspection told federal investigators that they had limited access or no reliable access to clean drinking water.
That finding echoed complaints made publicly throughout the facility’s operation. Former detainees, relatives, attorneys and advocates had described foul-smelling water, inconsistent distribution and concerns about contamination.
The OIG report does not prove every allegation made about the facility. It does establish that access to potable water was a concern serious enough to be documented during an official unannounced inspection.
Clean drinking water is one of the most basic duties owed by any detention authority. Immigration detention is civil confinement. People may be held while their legal status, removal proceedings or transfer arrangements are resolved, but detention does not eliminate the government’s obligation to provide safe water, food, sanitation and medical care.
The facility’s location made that obligation particularly important. Heat and humidity increase the danger of dehydration. Individuals taking medication or living with diabetes, high blood pressure and other health conditions may face greater risk when hydration is inconsistent.
Broken phones obstructed contact with attorneys and families
Inspectors also found inoperable telephones that interfered with detainees’ ability to contact attorneys and relatives.
Telephone access at an immigration facility is not a minor convenience. Detainees often need to communicate with lawyers, obtain documents, locate witnesses, contact consulates and tell family members where they have been taken.
Immigration proceedings move quickly, and a missed legal call can affect whether someone obtains representation or gathers evidence for a hearing. Remote detention makes functioning communication systems even more important because in-person visits may require hours of travel.
Legal-access complaints had followed Alligator Alcatraz since its opening. Attorneys and civil-rights groups said they struggled to locate clients, arrange confidential calls and determine which government entity had custody records.
In March 2026, a federal judge ordered changes intended to improve detainees’ access to counsel, including confidential calls, clearer multilingual procedures and more reliable opportunities for legal visits.
The OIG’s discovery of broken telephones supports the broader concern that the facility’s communication infrastructure was inadequate for a population facing serious legal consequences.
Inspectors found food and sanitation risks
The watchdog also identified poor food-handling practices that created risks of contamination and illness.
Temporary facilities face many of the same health obligations as permanent jails. Food must be stored at safe temperatures, kitchens must prevent cross-contamination and cleaning systems must control pests and waste.
Earlier accounts from detainees and former guards described overflowing toilets, insects, water collecting on floors and shortages of hygiene supplies. Florida officials repeatedly said the facility provided appropriate food, water, sanitation and medical services.
The inspector general’s report does not adopt every outside allegation. Its independent findings nevertheless reveal failures across several of the same areas identified by detainees and advocates.
That overlap matters. When officials dismiss initial complaints as political attacks or fabrications, a later government inspection can test whether those denials were justified.
In this case, the federal watchdog found problems involving cramped housing, drinking water, recreation, communications, food hygiene and the use of small cages.
Earlier allegations were dismissed
In December 2025, Amnesty International published findings alleging cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at Alligator Alcatraz and another Florida immigration facility.
The organization described detainees being shackled and confined in a small outdoor cage while exposed to heat and insects. It argued that some reported practices could amount to torture under international standards.
At the time, a spokesperson for Governor DeSantis dismissed the allegations as fabrications and characterized Amnesty’s investigation as politically motivated.
The DHS inspector general did not make a legal finding that torture occurred. It did, however, confirm the existence and repeated use of small metal enclosures, document their inadequate dimensions and conclude that their use did not align with humane-treatment standards.
That is an important distinction. The watchdog’s report supports central factual elements of earlier detainee accounts without necessarily endorsing every legal characterization made by outside groups.
It also found that the cages continued to be used after the practice had attracted national attention. The OIG’s review included cases through January 18, 2026, more than a month after Amnesty publicly described “The Box.”
The watchdog issued 10 recommendations
The inspector general made 10 recommendations intended to correct deficiencies at the detention center. Among them was a recommendation to discontinue use of the small metal enclosures.
Other recommendations addressed facility standards and the health and safety risks documented during the inspection.
Because Alligator Alcatraz closed before the report became public, those recommendations cannot operate like an ordinary corrective-action plan at an active facility. There are no remaining detainees at the site whose conditions can be improved.
Accountability can still extend beyond the physical camp.
DHS and ICE can determine whether comparable enclosures exist at other detention sites. Federal and state officials can preserve records showing who authorized the cages, what written policies governed them and whether medical professionals reviewed their use. Investigators can also determine whether detainees were restrained inside, whether injuries occurred and whether placements were accurately recorded.
The findings should also shape future contracts. If state governments or private operators create additional temporary detention centers, agreements should identify the applicable standards before detainees arrive. Oversight agencies should not have to determine months later which rules officials believed they were required to follow.
Divided authority weakened accountability
Alligator Alcatraz operated within an unusual arrangement involving Florida, private security personnel, DHS and ICE.
That structure allowed political leaders to celebrate the facility as an immigration-enforcement achievement while responsibility for daily conditions remained difficult for lawyers, journalists and detainees to trace.
The inspector general reported that staff could not clearly identify which detention standards governed the facility at the time of the inspection. That confusion is not a technical footnote. Standards establish requirements for housing space, medical care, grievance procedures, recreation, legal communication, disciplinary segregation and the use of force.
A facility cannot reliably comply with rules that its managers have not clearly identified.
The government’s power to confine people carries a direct duty to determine who is responsible for their treatment. Temporary construction, emergency-management authority and intergovernmental agreements do not reduce that duty.
The facility is closed, but the larger questions remain
Florida officials said Alligator Alcatraz detained and helped deport thousands of immigrants during its operation. Supporters viewed that record as evidence of effective enforcement. Critics argued that the facility combined political theater with excessive cost, environmental damage and abusive treatment.
Its closure ended the immediate confinement but not the disputes surrounding the site.
Environmental organizations have pursued litigation over construction and operations in the Everglades. In August, groups amended a lawsuit seeking remedies for alleged environmental damage they say continued after the camp stopped holding detainees.
Civil-rights advocates continue to seek information about people who passed through the facility, including transfers, medical treatment, access to attorneys and possible mistreatment.
The OIG report now supplies an official baseline for those debates. It demonstrates that the criticism was not based solely on hostile political interpretation. Federal inspectors found conditions they believed posed significant risks to detainee health and safety.
A cage does not become humane when its name changes
The most enduring image from the report is not the detention tents, the airfield or the surrounding Everglades. It is the small metal enclosure that staff called a “calming area.”
Institutional language can obscure the practical meaning of confinement. A locked, 18-square-foot metal cage remains a cage regardless of the terminology used in a logbook or briefing.
If a detainee was placed there for failing to follow a command, the use was disciplinary. If someone entered voluntarily because the crowded housing unit offered no other private space, that request raises questions about conditions in the larger unit. If the enclosure was intended for mental-health de-escalation, it should have met appropriate clinical, safety and space standards.
The DHS watchdog found that it did not.
The report’s significance reaches beyond one controversial detention center. It shows why independent inspections, functioning grievance systems, legal access and public records are necessary whenever the government confines people.
Alligator Alcatraz has closed, but the federal finding remains: detainees were repeatedly placed in small metal cages, and the practice did not meet the government’s own standard for humane treatment.
Reporting disclosure
This report distinguishes the DHS inspector general’s documented findings from allegations made in lawsuits or advocacy reports. It also distinguishes factual findings about detention conditions from legal conclusions that courts may not have resolved.
Source
- Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, Unannounced Inspection of ICE’s Florida Soft-Sided Facility, OIG-26-22, September 2026.
- The Guardian, Alligator Alcatraz held detainees in cages the size of phone booths, DHS watchdog says, September 14, 2026.
- Amnesty International, Human rights violations at Alligator Alcatraz and Krome detention centers, December 2025.
- Associated Press, Detainees describe conditions inside Alligator Alcatraz, July 2025.
- Department of Homeland Security, DHS response to allegations concerning Alligator Alcatraz, August 14, 2025.
- Office of U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, Investigation into reported abuse at Alligator Alcatraz, March 26, 2026.