Overview
- - Detainees say guards beat and pepper-sprayed them after phones went dead on April 2, with one man shown later with a blackened eye and another reported to have a broken wrist.
- - Attorney Katherine Blankenship detailed the incident in a court declaration supported by screenshots from a video call with an injured client.
- - The clash centers on a March 27 injunction that requires timely, free, confidential, unmonitored legal calls and at least one working phone for every 25 people held.
- - At an April 13 hearing, ACLU lawyers said staff were obstructing the order, the judge pressed officials to comply, and Florida’s legal team moved to appeal as federal defendants denied rights violations.
- - State officials dispute limits on attorney access and cite security and staffing issues, while senators opened an inquiry and a Florida congresswoman who toured the remote site called conditions inhumane.