Independent medical access must be given to detainees at Alligator Alcatraz

Photos were posted on social media over the weekend of several ambulances taking people to the hospital from Alligator Alcatraz, that makeshift prison built in eight days with no oversight and even less compassion on an abandoned air strip in a flood prone area in the middle of the Everglades just last month.
One was spotted leaving at 3:37 p.m. Saturday and another one at 8:30 p.m. Two were seen leaving on Friday, at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. And two others at 6:10 p.m. and just before midnight on Thursday.
Some detainees are in their 11th day of a hunger strike to denounce the conditions, so that may explain some of the hospitalizations.
Read related: Daniella Levine Cava finally takes a tougher stand vs Alligator Alcatraz
But at least six people had been reportedly transferred from the facility before the hunger strike began. That means at least 12 people — it’s probably more — either sick or injured, have been rushed to the hospital more than 40 miles away from the gulag in the middle of the swamp, built atop the old Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
And the Miami-Dade Department of Health is… ¿Dónde está? Playing hide and seek? Practicing yoga? Trying not to make eye contact?
Because someone should be asking very loudly:

Who is monitoring the health and safety standards at Alligator Alcatraz?
Is there even a doctor on site? A nurse? A thermometer?
Where are the medical records for these transfers?
Has anyone at DOH even stepped foot inside this place?

Let’s not forget: this facility was thrown together like a last-minute science fair project — only the prize was millions in taxpayer dollars wasted and the experiment is on actual people. The budget is $450 million — $290 mil of which has already gone to vendors with no open competitive system, no transparency (more on that later) — so what have they spent on healthcare?
According to a bunch of contacts published by the Miami Herald, CDR Healthcare Inc. was hired to build, staff and maintain a medical unit where they would administer drug tests and TB tests, for $17.5 million. Where is that money really being spent?
Immigrant advocates have repeatedly denounced the “dangerous and unlawful conditions” inside the state-managed immigration detention camp which they medical experts say could lead to some serious health risks for the hundreds of detainees who are being held there in group cages. Phone calls with detainees and their families have brought horror stories to light.
Toilets that don’t flush. Limited drinking water. Meals with bugs or maggots. Giant mosquitos that could be carrying illnesses. Access to showers once a week. Temperatures that drop to freezing cold from sweltering hot and back again, regularly.

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