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Leamsy La Figura, a Cuban reggaeton musician currently imprisoned in Alligator Alcatraz on assault charges, has spoken out against the prison camp’s conditions in a call from the Florida detention center, CBS reports.
La Figura was part of a group of prisoners who spoke with CBS News detailing allegations of human rights abuses; he is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery. “We’ve been here at Alcatraz since Friday,” La Figura says. “There’s over 400 people here. There’s no water to take a bath, it’s been four days since I’ve taken a bath.
“They only brought a meal once a day and it had maggots,” he continued. “The mosquitoes are as big as elephants.”
A detainee from Columbia said he was “on the edge of losing my mind” from jailers withholding his medicine and prison lights staying on “all day.” He also claimed his Bible was confiscated and that he was told he had “here there is no right to religion.”
“My Bible is the one thing that keeps my faith, and now I’m losing my faith,” he said.
Another prisoner claimed some of the inmates had proper authorization to be in the United States. “We’re human beings; we’re not dogs. We’re like rats in an experiment. I don’t know their motive for doing this, if it’s a form of torture.”
A representative for Florida Division of Emergency Management denied CBS’s reporting in a statement. “The reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false. The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order.”
Alligator Alcatraz was first announced in June 2025 by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier; constructed in eight days, the facility takes its name from its location in the Everglades, where the wildlife is used as a deterrent for would-be escapees. President Donald Trump toured the center in July and gave it his full endorsement as controversy grew over the camp’s construction on protected land and the potentials for environmental impact and infringement on human rights.