Week ending May 8, 2026
By Philip Cardella Date
Miami, Florida
This is going to be a little different and a lot shorter this week. Why?
I'm tired, y'all. I've been dealing with end of school year stuff for both kids and put one on a plane for Nepal this morning for a study abroad term. That plus stuff at church (The Gospel According to Abba? The Gospel According to Abba), stuff with the nonprofit I love, PACT, and the ideas of a documentary about the prayer vigils outside of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz finally coming together (not to mention Alligator Alcatraz apparently starting to shut down), I've been overwhelmed.
A teeny bit of "broll" from the Gospel According to Abba
Never fear, I'm still here, I'm still working on This Week in Florida, I'm just still recovering from my trip to California, which dovetailed into me jumping into the deep end here in Florida.
On the so-called Alligator Alcatraz
As I've been diving deeper into the world of making a short documentary (on the prayer vigils, as mentioned) its starting to look like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz may be shutting down.
I was visiting Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida on Wednesday about doing a formal interview about the prayer vigils when she mentioned that she'd heard rumors the South Florida Detention Center (one of Alligator Alcatraz's real names) was starting to shut down.
Derek Harrison
On Thursday news broke, first with the New York Times, then several other outfits that yes, indeed, the Federal Government and the State of Florida were indeed in talks to shut it down.
The word from Tallahassee is that it was never meant to be permanent and that it was just too darn expensive.
A) I've been arguing it was too darn expensive since it opened. It was a total boondoggle from the beginning.
B) So far as I can tell, one reason it was deemed to expensive is because the Federal Government won't pay for it and the reason it won't pay for it is that it would need to conduct an environmental impact review. The first ever of these environmental impacts was conducted on the exact same spot in the 1970s when Florida was trying to build the world's largest airport.
The airport advocates lost resoundingly.
Fun fact about the above link: I saved that article in my database on August 30, 2025–the webpage no longer exists. Apparently, the history of the airport was something the Federal Government didn't want to stay out there. Good thing the Internet is forever (the link is to a wayback machine snapshot from 2024).
C) I haven't seen any reporting on this as it relates to the potential shutdown of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, but there was a massive wildfire just down the road last week from the facility made literally of tents. That fire got within I'd estimate 100 yards of Florida's original airboat tour facility, Coopertown Airboats. Coopertown Airboats has been there since the end of World War II and I imagine they had quite the scare when the fire approached.
It should have been obvious from the inception of the South Florida Detention Center (Alligator Alcatraz) but it is an extremely vulnerable spot to natural disasters such as flooding, hurricanes and, somewhat ironically, fires. Fires are a natural part of the yearly life cycle of the Everglades. A tent city out there was always a terrible idea. I'd speculate the fire threat got close enough they had to consider evacuating the detention center and that was the final straw.
I'll certainly be out there with my cameras for the prayer vigil at 4 PM at US 41 mile marker 48 tomorrow, Sunday, rain or shine, despite it being Mother's Day. There are many mothers out there during these prayer vigil's whose husbands or children are in there–so I intend to be out there for that hour.
If the facility closes that doesn't mean the people inside go home, rather, it means they'll be transferred to a more permanent facility.
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