The U.S. immigration detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" was controversial from the start, hastily constructed on an isolated airstrip in Florida's Everglades, the wetlands teeming with alligators, snakes and mosquitos. Reports of harsh and inhumane conditions inside began soon after, and the facility was permanently shut in June, just shy of a year in operation. Now, a U.S. government watchdog report has confirmed some of the more disturbing accounts of what took place inside, including use of metal cage-like enclosures referred to as "calming areas" to hold detainees. CGTN’s Nitza Soledad Perez, in Miami, talked to a woman who spent months collecting accounts from inside the facility, including the harrowing tale told by her own father.

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