Two prisoners formerly at the Florida immigrant detention camp dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” told NOTUS they witnessed detainees being put in “the box,” a small cage exposed to the harsh elements of the swamp that guards used to confine and punish detainees.
This type of cage was described in an Amnesty International report earlier this month that decried “extreme forms of punishment and torture.”
Amnesty reported that four interviewed detainees described a “2x2 foot cage-like structure” kept in the prison yard. The two men who spoke to NOTUS alleged that “the box” was roughly a meter wide and a meter deep, with enough space to stand — but not enough to sleep lying down flat — forcing exhausted prisoners to sit and lean against the metal bars.