6 September 24-30, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | BOXED IN Alligator Alcatraz put detainees in tiny metal cages dubbed “calming areas.” BY NICHOLAS YEE F or months, staff at Florida’s infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center had a peculiar name for the small metal cages sitting outside the facility’s recreation areas. They called them “calming areas.” But a newly released federal watchdog report paints a considerably more disturbing picture of how the roughly four-foot-by-four-foot enclosures were used at the Everglades detention center. Between July 17, 2025, and January 18, 2026, staff confined at least 79 detainees in- side the metal enclosures for periods ranging from several minutes to nearly two hours, ac- cording to a report released by the U.S. De- partment of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). Each enclosure pro- vided only about 18 square feet of floor space. “The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment,” in- spectors wrote. The OIG says it had never encountered the practice at any other Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility it had inspected. Photos included in the report show tall, narrow boxes constructed largely from metal mesh, with solid metal panels covering the bottom portions of their doors. The structures stood outside behind chain- link fencing topped with razor wire. Facility employees told inspectors the enclosures al- lowed detainees to “de-escalate and have time alone,” according to the report. Staff maintained that detainees voluntarily asked to spend time inside them. Inspectors found evidence suggesting otherwise. In fact, detainees had already been telling human rights investigators about being sent to a small “box” as punishment. In at least one in- stance, records indicated that a detainee spent 26 minutes inside one of the enclosures after he “failed to comply with a lawful command.” That led the OIG to conclude the cages may have been used as a disciplinary tool. The revelation appears to lend new weight to allegations detainees made months before the federal report was released. In December 2025, New Times reported that detainees at Alligator Alcatraz described being punished inside a small cage-like structure they called “the box.” The allegations were documented in a report by Amnesty International, whose researchers interviewed 17 people who had been detained at the facility. One former detainee told Amnesty that guards placed him inside a roughly four-foot-by- four-foot “box” after he asked for medical attention. He al- leged that officers shackled his hands and feet and left him un- able to move freely inside the enclosure. Amnesty character- ized the practice as treatment that could amount to torture. The OIG report does not ex- plicitly say whether the metal “calming areas” photographed by inspectors were the same structures detainees previously described as “the box.” But its findings provide the first federal documentation that small metal en- closures were in fact being used at the facility — and that at least one detainee was placed inside one after allegedly disobeying staff. That account also clashes with the expla- nation facility officials gave inspectors: that detainees themselves asked to enter the en- closures to “de-escalate and have time alone.” Staff also told investigators that detainees weren’t locked inside. Inspectors, however, ob- served locking mechanisms installed on the en- closures. The findings were part of an unannounced OIG inspection in January of the Florida Soft-Sided Facility, the official name of the immigration detention center constructed at the Dade-Collier Training and Tran- sition Airport in the Everglades and quickly nicknamed “Alligator Alca- traz.” The facility be- came a centerpiece of Florida’s immi- gration crackdown after opening in summer 2025, but almost immediately drew allegations of inhu- mane conditions from detainees, attorneys and immigrant-rights groups. The dimensions documented by federal in- spectors underscore just how confined the spaces were. According to the OIG, the metal enclosures measured approximately four feet, three inches by four feet, three inches and stood seven feet, nine inches tall. For compari- son, that’s a footprint of roughly 18 square feet. The watchdog said ICE detention stan- dards require facilities to hold detainees in “the least restrictive environment necessary for fa- cility safety and security.” The cages, inspec- tors concluded, didn’t meet that standard. The report also found the average detainee spent roughly 59 minutes in- side one of the enclo- sures, according to reporting on the newly released findings. And the cages were hardly the only problem inspectors identified. The OIG found that detainees in the gen- eral population could have as little as 28 square feet of living space when housing units were full, despite Florida Model Jail Standards requiring substantially more. In- spectors also documented problems involv- ing medical care, sanitation, food storage, recreation and access to legal resources. Per- haps most strikingly, inspectors found confu- sion over a fundamental question: Whose detention standards was Alligator Alcatraz actually supposed to follow? One facility official described the situation to investigators as “so gray as to whose place this is…and which standards to follow.” DHS later argued that the State of Florida controlled the facility’s day-to-day operations and that the federal government did not have a direct con- tract for detention space there. The OIG never- theless noted that the people being held there were in ICE custody, ICE employees worked at the facility and detainees received ICE hand- books. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also obligated hundreds of millions of dollars toward the operation. The Everglades facility ceased operations in June, according to the OIG report. Because it was no longer operating, the inspector gen- eral administratively closed the ten recom- mendations it had developed to address the problems uncovered during its inspection. The cages, at least, left behind photographic evidence of one of the stranger chapters in the controversial detention center’s short life. Staff called them places to calm down. Federal inspectors called their use inconsis- tent with humane detention standards. [email protected] DETAINEES HAD ALREADY BEEN TELLING HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATORS ABOUT BEING SENT TO A SMALL “BOX” AS PUNISHMENT. | METRO | Alligator Alcatraz used tiny metal cages to confine detainees. Photo by OIG ALWAYS IN YOUR FEED. CHOOSE YOUR CHANNEL
