A Leon County circuit judge has dismissed a lawsuit by five Democratic lawmakers seeking unannounced access to the state’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention center. Judge Jonathan Sjostrom ruled that state laws granting legislators access to prisons and jails do not apply because the Everglades facility is not a correctional institution under the Department of Corrections. The ruling supports the DeSantis administration’s argument that individual lawmakers lack the oversight authority held by legislative committees.
