The Original Alcatraz Closed for Costing Too Much. Alligator Alcatraz Should Too.
The newest state-run immigration detention center, Alligator Alcatraz, the brain-child of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, has been touted as an “efficient” and “low-cost opportunity” to house, process, and directly deport migrant detainees. But much like the original Alcatraz prison, elected officials should be wary of the rising cost that remote detention facilities have on taxpayers.Â
Alligator Alcatraz is located on a 30-square-mile parcel of land in the Everglades, chosen in part for its nearly 11,000-foot unused airstrip capable of directly accepting and deporting immigrant detainees. The land’s remoteness was another selling point for the Florida officials. “They ain’t going anywhere once they are here…because good luck getting to civilization,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) during a press conference on July 1, the day before the facility opened. “The security is amazing. Natural and otherwise,” he continued, referring to the alligator- and python-laden perimeter surrounding the temporary tents used to house detainees.Â
It was the site’s remoteness that inspired the facility’s name, an homage to the original Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary located in the San Francisco Bay. DeSantis even quipped during an opening day tour of the Florida facility that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) could potentially reopen Alcatraz as a state-run immigration detention center with the financial support of the Department of Homeland Security. But there are more similarities between Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz and the notorious federal prison that DeSantis may want to consider.Â
Alcatraz, which ran as a federal prison from 1934 to 1963, was the product of a “collaborative effort of Attorney General Homer Cummings and Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Sanford Bates [to produce] a high-profile prison that represented the Justice Department’s response to fears around public safety and organized crime,” according to the National Parks Service. “A remote site was sought” specifically to “prohibit constant communication with the outside world.” Despite San Francisco
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