the Big Cypress National Preserve

The Alligator Alcatraz Boondoggle

Since the early 1990s, I have visited scores of prisons and jails throughout the United States, as well as the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. The immigrant-detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, deep in the Florida Everglades, stands out as a uniquely cruel publicity stunt with an absurdly high price tag, in which much of the money goes into just a few pockets. For almost a year, the facility has been operated under an unusual arrangement: funded by the state of Florida and run by...