Alligator Alcatraz: The Swampy Echoes of Papillon in Modern Detention
- Frazer Macdonald Hay
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
As reported by BBC News today (June 24, 2025), Florida has begun construction on a migrant detention center—nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”—on an abandoned airstrip in the Everglades.
This startling development evokes dark memories of past penal colonies—remote, brutal places where unwanted bodies were warehoused far from sight and mind. The plan, led by Trump-aligned officials and championed as a “cost-effective” response to rising migrant numbers, reawakens chilling echoes of films like Papillon, where exile into nature masked deliberate cruelty.
What’s unfolding in Florida is not simply a policy decision; it is a statement of values. And it asks us to confront the uncomfortable question: how far have we really come?
The Site: Isolation as Punishment
The detention facility is being constructed at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a mostly abandoned airstrip located roughly 36 miles west of Miami, deep in Everglades territory. According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the center is part of a federal push to “turbocharge” mass deportations of undocumented migrants—framed as an effort to fulfill Trump’s campaign pledges.
Florida’s Attorney General, James Uthmeier, lauded the site's remoteness as a built-in security feature, stating in a video:
“If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”
It’s hard to imagine a clearer declaration that this isn’t about justice or compassion. It’s about banishment. About fear.
A Wetland Wound: Environmental and Cultural Violence
While officials insist the facility won’t be built within Everglades National Park, the location is embedded within the Big Cypress ecosystem—an area of immense ecological significance and home to rare wildlife and fragile water systems.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava called the plan “environmentally devastating.” Conservationists warn that construction will disrupt hydrology, threaten endangered species, and further erode one of North America's most precious ecosystems—all in the name of expediency.
This isn’t just carceral violence. It’s also ecological violence.
From Papillon to Present: Penal Logic Reborn
In the 1973 film Papillon, based on Henri Charrière’s memoir, we witness the degradation of men exiled to a penal colony on the coast of French Guiana—jungles, hunger, heat, isolation. The story felt like a cautionary tale from another era. But modern iterations persist.
Russia’s penal colonies still echo Soviet gulags. The U.S. maintains the infamous Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Mexico’s Isla María Madre—once home to one of Latin America's most notorious island prisons—was only recently decommissioned.
And now, Alligator Alcatraz joins this list.
History does not repeat itself—but it does rhyme. And here, the rhyme is cruel.
Human Beings, Not “Illegals”: What Detention Does
The British Red Cross's 2024 report Scared, Confused, Alone offers chilling insight into what detention really feels like for people caught in these systems:
One person was detained for 2 years and 7 months—without a conviction.
Others were detained four or more times.
Four had attempted suicide. Five more had seriously considered it.
Many described unrelenting insomnia, fear, and psychological distress.
“Everything is stressful,” one interviewee said. “You can’t sleep… maybe they want to send you back… you never know.”
The term “detention” belies the reality: this is a form of administrative torture—indefinite, dehumanizing, and often without clear legal process.
Trauma by Design: The Psychological Toll
Modern psychiatric research backs this up. A 2018 meta-review published in BMC Psychiatry concluded that detention significantly worsens mental health outcomes for asylum seekers, especially when compounded by previous trauma.
Symptoms include:
Severe anxiety and depression
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Suicidal ideation and psychosis
And these effects don’t end when detention ends. They endure. They infect relationships, employment, family, and futures.
Costly, Cruel, and Counterproductive
Let’s be clear: this isn’t “efficient.” The Florida facility is expected to cost $450 million a year—paid in part by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, originally designed to offer humanitarian aid, not cage people in the swamp.
Is this the best use of public money? Is this how we define security?
From Fear to Policy: We Must Do Better
There are better options—more humane, more effective, and more aligned with democratic values:
Time limits on detention: The UK has begun debating a 28-day maximum.
Community-based alternatives: Case management and open accommodation centers have proven far cheaper and more humane.
Legal safeguards: Access to legal aid and regular case review is essential.
Environmental accountability: No detention center should be built at the expense of a biosphere.
A Moral Crossroads
Alligator Alcatraz is not just a political story—it is a moral one. It shows what happens when fear becomes policy, and when cruelty is repackaged as innovation.
We are watching the return of exile, of penal logic, of jungle isolation. The only difference? This time, the alligators are real.
Let’s Not Look Away
The echoes of Papillon were meant to haunt us. They weren’t meant to become blueprints.
We must resist the normalization of these sites—not only because they degrade the individuals trapped within them, but because they degrade all of us.
Let’s call this what it is: a swamp of shame.And let’s refuse to let it grow.
Text by #FrazerMacdonaldHay
