A pair of private, for-profit companies involved in the controversial operations and medical care at Alligator Alcatraz are positioning themselves as potential contractors for at least five new adult detention facilities sought by the Florida Highway Patrol.
Records obtained by the Florida Trident show that Jacksonville consulting firm Critical Response Strategies (CRS) and REDTAG-19, a healthcare management company operating in Texas and Florida according to its website, are two of seven vendors which responded to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FHSMV) “Request for Information” (RFI) posted earlier this month. Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles oversees FHP.
The project would apparently be a first of its kind for the Highway Patrol, which normally transfers custody of detainees to local jails for holding.
In the RFI, the Department wrote it was seeking advice from interested vendors to erect five or more “facilities,” defined as “where a detention facility contractor delivers secure residential support services, under the oversight of the U.S. Government to house its detainees on a 24-hour per day, 7-day per week, 365 day per year basis.”
Alligator Alcatraz, the immigrant detention center constructed by the DeSantis administration in the middle of the Everglades, closed in June after almost a year of operation at a cost of more than $1 billion in no-bid contract work. The facility came under fire for inhumane treatment and substandard medical care.
The requested information included specific potential locations south of Interstate 4, detention standards, detainee-to-officer ratios, security and access control, and construction and operation needs, among other items.
But details on FHP’s intent for the new facilities are scarce, although speculation has centered on immigration 287(g) agreements between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Florida law enforcement agencies as the impetus behind the Department’s request, along with the expiration of temporary protected status, or “TPS,” for Haitian immigrants now facing removal. FHP leads Florida in the number of immigration arrests; Florida currently leads the nation in ICE arrests.
In its response, CRS, one of the most highly paid vendors involved in Alligator Alcatraz, pitched its qualifications including “direct, current operational and operator-informed facility-planning insight into rapidly activated detention and intake environments, including 24/7 staffing, booking and release workflows…federal oversight, family-sensitive detainee support, and continuity under public and regulatory scrutiny.”
The company is recommending “a five-site portfolio built around state-owned sites and a repeatable 50-bed hard-wall modular prototype,” one for women, four for men. No minors are included in the housing design.
The recommendations are based on experience, CRS noted in its 21-page response, citing, among other contracts, its work at Alligator Alcatraz, which a federal judge found was built without environmental impact studies required for the Big Cypress National Preserve.
CRS also pointed to the Baker County Detention Facility, a formerly shuttered North Florida state prison converted to a detention facility dubbed by DeSantis as “Deportation Depot.” CRS said it provided advice on the facility “during a pre-opening walkthrough.”
The company identified eight counties with state-owned properties for screening as potential locations: Polk, Osceola, Highlands, Okeechobee, Hendry, Charlotte, Palm Beach, and Miami Dade.
Hendry, Charlotte, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade are identified as lower priority due to various factors such as labor costs, flooding risks, and emergency medical transport time.
CRS first came under scrutiny in July 2025 after the governor’s office awarded the company a $78.5 million no-bid contract for various oversight operations at Alligator Alcatraz. The immigration detention facility consisting of rows of tents was hastily constructed by the DeSantis administration on a single air strip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport inside the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Contracts with CRS and other vendors, along with details such as prices, subcontractors, even the agreements themselves were quickly scrubbed shortly after its opening from FACTS, a state-run contract and purchase order tracking website, and replaced by summaries with few details and little information.
Two lawsuits regarding environmental damage and allegations of detainee abuse and neglect were dismissed after Florida closed the facility.
According to news reports at the time, CRS had arrived on the emergency services contracting scene just a few years earlier, quickly securing state agreements for COVID-19 work, and storm recovery work such as replacing emergency signs following Hurricane Michael, which earned the company $8 million.
Tapping CRS for Alligator Alcatraz staffing and management immediately raised concerns by Democrats and immigration advocates, who questioned the waiving of background checks, thanks to a previous emergency order issued by DeSantis, and whether the company had the level of experience needed to run such a facility.
Additional questions about the contract’s origins were raised after a news report detailed the company’s connections at the time to a prominent Jacksonville businessman represented in Tallahassee by Brian Ballard and Adrian Lukis. Lukis is DeSantis’ former chief of staff.
CRS has since made its first and only campaign contribution earlier this year, donating $10,000 in July to the Friends of Byron Donalds political action committee. Donalds is the Republican nominee to replace DeSantis.
Like CRS, REDTAG-19 makes no mention of its former work at Alligator Alcatraz on its website. There is also no record of payments to the company according to the state-run vendor payments website.
The only hint of its Alcatraz involvement comes via its 10-page presentation package to Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. REDTAG-19 touts its work at the facility beginning with its opening until its closure in June 2026 as “Directly Relevant Past Performance.”
“REDTAG-19’s Director of Operations/Surgeon served as independent physician contractor and Medical Director at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport detention facility…a facility with an average daily population of approximately 1,500 detainees and capacity to scale to 3,000,” the company pitched in its package for FHP.
The documents list responsibilities including directing medication dispensing, insulin administration, coordinating on communicable diseases such as TB and Covid with local health departments, and coordinating psychiatry/behavioral health telemedicine, among other items.
But medical care was sharply criticized at the Everglades facility. According to news reports, the failure to dispense medication led to at least one detainee’s collapse in August 2025, and the facility was faulted for its lack of on-site medical capacity along with the harsh conditions facing detainees kept in cages and tents during the intense heat of a Florida summer.
Additional reports of inadequate medical care and lack of medication continued throughout the year, despite the state’s insistence that detainees had access to a fully staffed medical facility.
The company, which deferred the bulk of information sought in the RFI to a licensed construction contractor, recommended security/medical staffing levels mirror its “operating model at Alligator Alcatraz,” and a “streamlined, right-sized ‘doc-in-a-box’ medical model” rather than a “larger fixed clinical footprint sized like a hospital wing.” REDTAG added that it “can be added to a prime contractor’s team” or considered “as a specialty medical services subcontractor or teaming partner.”
In its RFI, the Department noted that the information it was seeking was for planning purposes only, and not a solicitation for offers. No additional steps or timelines were disclosed. It advised interested vendors to monitor the state’s Vendor Information Portal for future developments.
In addition to CRS and REDTAG-19, these are the additional vendors and recommended potential site locations where noted:
- GSDA Alliance of Cooper City, Florida, described itself as an “independent compliance consulting practice.” It is a sole proprietorship which specializes in pre-operational review, and whose services have been used by national detention operators, according to its documents.
- Rental Solutions and Events LLC which has served a range of clients including FEMA and NASCAR. State records show the company received a $215,150 purchase order in 2024 from the Department of Children and Families for a mobile kitchen.
- Integra General Contracting of Sarasota. Integra has had two previous state contracts earlier this year with the Department of Juvenile Justice for building window boarding. It also reported various work performed in Florida schools, correction facilities and fire stations, among other projects.
- Disaster Management Group or DMG of Jupiter, Florida. The company’s 32-page packet of information, much of which is redacted, notes that it designs, crafts, and operates temporary detention facilities, and currently is “operational today at 5,000 detainees under federal detention standards.” The principal execution risk on this program is not price, the company cautions, but a contractor who cannot actually deliver five simultaneous compliant facilities inside the schedule. It recommends several possible counties for screening as potential facility sites. They are Polk, Okeechobee, DeSoto/Hardee, Glades/Hendry, Highlands, and St. Lucie/Martin.
- FORTS Logistics LLC of Coconut Creek, Florida, is headed by a former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the agency which oversaw operations at Alligator Alcatraz and typically leads recovery efforts following natural disasters such as hurricanes. The company offers modular units which are rapidly deployed and can withstand hurricane force winds up to 172mph, along with ballistic protection, its packet noted. The company says its structures are in active deployment “supporting federal detention surge capacity,” and regional Ebola response in Kenya, and has “standing support agreements” with the Florida Department of Health, among other government agencies. Regions recommended by the company for potential detention sites, along with the corresponding FHP Troop numbers in closest proximity are: Broward/Miami-Dade, Troop E; Palm Beach/Treasure Coast, Troop L; Hillsborough/Polk/Manatee, Troop C; Lee/Collier (SW Florida), Troop F; Osceola/Orange (Central), Troop D; and Hendry/Glades (Inland), Troop F.
The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The Trident was created and first published in 2022 by non-profit investigative, a non-profit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state.
Michelle DeMarco is an award-winning investigative reporter who returned to journalism after more than two decades in public service. Contact her at demarco@flcga.org.
