Alligator Alcatraz phones were cut off. Then the beatings began, court docs say

[Coldwater]

Attorneys representing immigrants held at the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention site alleged Friday in federal court that guards beat and pepper-sprayed detainees after a protest over lost phone access - allegations they argue show state and federal officials defying a recent court order protecting detainees’ civil rights.

In a court filing in Fort Myers, lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and civil rights groups said officers at the controversial Everglades facility entered a unit earlier this month and physically assaulted detainees. One man was thrown to the ground and “severely beat,” according to his attorney, who submitted photographs to the court showing her client with a black eye.

The attorney, Katie Blankenship of the legal-services organization Sanctuary of the South, wrote in a sworn declaration that officers broke another detainee’s wrist and “pepper sprayed everyone in the cage.”

The violence, the attorneys say, erupted after site employees abruptly cut off detainees’ access to phones on April 2 - eliminating what they described as their clients’ only connection to legal counsel and their families.


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