St. Augustine, Fl —
St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick says claims of mistreatment at the immigration detention facility dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ are exaggerated.
Hardwick told Jacksonville’s Morning News on Wednesday that he recently visited the airstrip in his role as Florida Model Jail Standards Chair and a board member of the Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence.
He equates what he saw as a Forward Operating Base overseas.
“It was dress right dress, chow halls, laundry facilities, everything where you could actually run an operation on what they call a FOB overseas.”, Hardwick said.
Hardwick says he met the director of detainee operations and walked away impressed with the care and custody of the detainees.
“It’s probably clean as, or cleaner, than a majority of our jails in the state of Florida. It was pretty impressive to watch.”, he said.
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Hardwick said he plans to return to Alligator Alcatraz in the next couple of weeks.
Meantime, a federal judge on Wednesday heard arguments about the immigration detention center.
Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe want to halt the project, claiming it violates environmental laws and threatens sensitive wetlands.
The lawsuit challenges the detention center, built over a month ago on a Miami-Dade County airstrip. A separate lawsuit by civil rights groups argues detainees’ rights are being violated.
Attorneys for federal and state agencies argue the case was filed in the wrong jurisdiction. The judge hasn’t yet ruled on this argument.
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