Dem
47
GOP
53
Federal Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee, has
ruled
that the administration must halt the expansion of the "Alligator Alcatraz" prison in Florida. In her 82-page ruling,
she also banned the installation of more lighting and ordered the removal of all generators, gas, sewage, and waste
receptacles within 60 days. The ruling is a win for the environmental organizations that sued to protect the Florida
Everglades and the creatures that live there. Williams also ruled that the fencing must be removed to allow Miccosukee
Tribe members access to the places they had access to before the prison was hastily constructed. They need access to
these places to harvest medicinal plants they use for the health of tribal members. Who would have thought that the
spotted owl gator would be able to stop a federal prison?
The legal issue here is that federal law requires environmental impact studies before any federal construction project, and that was not done in this case. The plaintiffs argued that the studies are important because wastewater from the prison could harm the wildlife in the Everglades and that is why an environmental study is essential. Also, the lighting from the prison has reduced the habitat of the (protected) Florida panther by 2,000 acres. In short, Williams wrote that there were no "deficiencies" in the environmental process because there was no process at all, as required by federal law.
Florida will appeal the ruling because it has already issued contracts for $200 million to build the prison. To us, that seems like a vast amount of money for simple iron cages in a big tent. This is not even close to being a facility like the supermax prison in Florence, CO, which took years to plan and execute, and still only cost $60 million. We smell big time payoffs to firms that are in the governor's good graces. This suspicion is based on: (1) the math and (2) the fact that two dozen big contracts have been removed from the state's public database.
Williams also ordered the government not to bring any additional migrants to the prison. (V)