Detainees detail beatings and abuse at ‘Alligator Alcatraz'

Detainees are raising serious new concerns about conditions and oversight inside the state-run detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

In court filings, Katie Blankenship, an attorney representing detainees inside the facility, details how she learned about an incident on April 2 after speaking with two of her clients. She said they told her detainees began complaining after the phones were “cut off.”

Phone access is the only way detainees can communicate with family members and attorneys. Without it, tensions inside escalated quickly, according to the attorney. In her filing, she says, “officers beat several people during this incident” and “pepper sprayed everyone in the cage,” referring to the housing unit.

Raiko Lopez Morffi, one of her clients, was among them.

In a recorded phone call, Lopez Morffi told his stepmother he had been physically assaulted. 

“They kicked me in the head, they kicked me in the face,” he said in Spanish.

His stepmother, Lizette Champagne, shared the call and says her stepson has described ongoing abuse, mistreatment, and poor living conditions inside the Everglades detention camp.

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Attorneys filed a notice in court earlier this month alleging the state violated a judge’s order on attorney access to detainees. In that filing, Blankenship included a photo showing her client with a visible black eye. The photo was taken during a video call. 

Blankenship alleges Lopez Morffi was punched in the face, “thrown to the ground and (was) beaten by multiple guards,” adding he also “suffered injuries to his shoulder and arm and was kicked in the head.”

The attorney says her client was placed in solitary confinement — referred to by some detainees as “the box” because of its small size.

His stepmother is now pleading for mercy.

“I ask for clemency,” she said. “If he stays there, they’re going to kill him.”

She says it is difficult to believe something like this could be happening in the United States.

Lopez Morffi, a Cuban national and father of a five-year-old son, has an active deportation order and was detained during a routine immigration check-in late last year, according to his family. He also has a prior federal conviction tied to credit card fraud, according to court records.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declined to answer questions, citing ongoing litigation. Because the facility is managed by the state, DHS referred questions to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. So far, the state has not responded.