Human cages and overflowing toilets at $1m a day: the brutal legacy of Ron DeSantis’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ jail

Florida’s hard-right governor is trying to distance himself from the notorious detention center as public opinion sours It took three days for Arianne Betancourt’s joy at the release of her father from months of detention in Florida’s notorious so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail to fully evaporate. At first, she was able to overlook his shockingly gaunt appearance and weight loss, hesitant movements and moments of slurred speech. The tonic of being back in her Miami apartment, she thought, would surely hasten his return to health. That was on Thursday. By Sunday, however, Justo Betancourt was in the emergency room, with doctors suspecting he had suffered a series of mini strokes, during his detention and since his release. They were unable to perform an MRI scan on his brain to confirm the diagnosis because of the electronic monitoring tag affixed to his ankle. “If he had a headache, if he didn’t feel good, if his glucose was high, they’d just tell him to drink more water,” Arianne Betancourt said of his guards’ reaction to her diabetic father’s requests for medical help and his twice-daily insulin injections. “I’m furious at the condition heâ