The controversial immigration detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" classifies its detainees using color-coded uniforms and wristbands based on their criminal history and flight risk, according to a detainee handbook.
The classification is part of extensive procedures that are outlined in a detainee handbook, which emerged through litigation challenging attorney access at the remote Everglades facility. The handbook outlines regimented daily life inside the detention center, which has faced multiple legal challenges since the facility's opening in July.
According to the handbook, newly arrived detainees are processed right away, where they must watch mandatory orientation videos and are given limited personal items. The facility allows detainees to keep only essential religious belongings, including prayer books and rosaries, along with items deemed medically necessary like glasses, dentures, wedding rings, and basic hygiene supplies.
Detainees are given standard issued items such as soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, bedding, and sandals worn with uniforms. The handbook categorizes a number of items as contraband, including recording equipment, cell phones, and documents such as passports and birth certificates, which Immigration and Customs Enforcement may use as evidence.
The facility also keeps strict dress code requirements that prohibit detainees from taking off their uniform shirts inside housing units or recreational spaces. Detainees can face disciplinary action for putting their hands inside their waistbands, regardless of weather.
During mandatory head counts, absolute silence and stillness is mandated. Violating the rule results in a lockdown for the entire dormitory population's housing unit.
Days start at 5:30 a.m. with breakfast in designated dining halls where bringing food out of the hall is not allowed. Detainees who must be segregated receive their meals within their individual cells.
The handbook states that "personal hygiene is essential" and outlines expectations for regular bathing and grooming, with barbering services on-site. Regardless, detainees had reported major sanitation problems in July, which included toilets not working that flooded floors with waste and periods where showers did not work for days.
Detainees are allowed to visit a facility law library for up to five hours weekly to explore their legal options.
"As a result, the facility is beset by a host of previously unthinkable problems," civil rights advocates said in their preliminary injunction motion. "Physical conditions are atrocious."
The legal challenge is one of three active lawsuits targeting the facility. Environmental groups successfully obtained a federal court order in August requiring the facility to shut down within two months, citing inadequate environmental review of the site that was converted from an airstrip. However, an appellate court panel suspended that preliminary injunction in early September, allowing the facility to continue operations.
President Donald Trump visited the facility in July and said it could serve as a template for future detention centers nationwide as his administration looks for more ways to carry out deportation of illegal immigrants. The facility operates through state agencies and private contractors, as opposed to traditional federal immigration detention systems.
The handbook has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assault and has dedicated personnel to investigate any such claims. The handbook advises detainees to maintain a confident appearance and avoid accepting gifts or favors from others to not attract such abuse, while noting that victims of assault bear no responsibility.
"Many attackers choose victims who look like they won't fight back or who they think is emotionally weak," the handbook reads.
Mark Saunders of The Nakamoto Group, which represents private contractors responsible for providing access attorneys for the detained, disputed civil rights claims that the Alligator Alcatraz detainees are receiving inadequate legal advice. Saunders's court filing shows that every request from a detainee for a meeting with an attorney has been approved, either in person or over video.