Glades County Detention Center — Moore Haven FL · FL · 500 beds · Glades County Sheriff's Office

Overview

The Glades County Detention Center is located at the Glades County Jail in Moore Haven, Florida, and is operated by the Glades County Sheriff’s Office (west of Lake Okeechobee, in south-central Florida). On April 3, 2025, ICE announced the reinstatement of an intergovernmental service agreement (IGSA) with the Glades County Board of County Commissioners, reestablishing federal immigration processing and creating up to 500 additional beds. This followed a 15-year prior arrangement that ICE had paused in March 2022 (Biden administration) over “persistent ongoing concerns related to the provision of detainee medical care” and unmet detention standards — ICE reinstated the contract anyway in April 2025 to “clear the backlog” of detained immigrants, per its own email to CNN.

Key Details

IGSA reinstated: April 3, 2025, after a 3-year pause (2022-2025) triggered by substandard-conditions findings
Capacity: Up to 500 beds (guaranteed minimum of 500 beds per ICE contract, per detentionreports.com)
Operator: Glades County Sheriff’s Office
Contract type: IGSA (intergovernmental service agreement)
287(g): Glades County Sheriff’s Office signed the standard 287(g) agreement (WSO + TFM models) under Florida’s statewide mandate — Florida Sheriffs Association announced Feb 24, 2025 that all 67 county sheriffs had signed 287(g) agreements following Gov. DeSantis’s SB 2C.
Prior investigation, no discipline: A DHS/ICE internal investigation (reported by CNN, June 20, 2025) found a staff member turned off a fan and that supervisors “failed to provide (a) safe working environment for detainee(s)” — but DHS ultimately stated the allegations “were found unsubstantiated.”

Deaths in Custody

Royer Pérez Jiménez, a 19-year-old Mexican national, died at the facility on March 16, 2026. A detention officer found him unresponsive; Moore Haven Fire Rescue was called and he was pronounced dead at 2:51 a.m. ICE reported the death as “presumed suicide,” with the official cause still under investigation as of this research. ICE’s own press release characterized him as a “criminal illegal alien” — language disputed by advocacy groups covering the case (Common Dreams, NIPNLG).

Environmental / Conditions Report (2026)

A coalition report — “Sweet Land, Bitter Deal: Immigrant Detention and Unbreathable Air in Florida’s Sugarcane Heartland” — published by Earthjustice, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Freedom for Immigrants, and American Friends Service Committee (with Stanford researchers) documents:

Toxic disinfectant misuse: Two products, “Mint” and “Maxim Neutral,” both containing quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs — a toxic industrial pesticide), were administered at concentrations far exceeding manufacturer/EPA limits.
2021 carbon monoxide poisoning: A CO buildup in the facility kitchen poisoned nine people (six detained kitchen workers, three Sheriff’s Office staff); four detained men and at least one staff member were hospitalized.
Pepper spray as punishment: Advocates document pepper spray used punitively/in retaliation for detainees requesting water or toilet paper, disproportionately against Black detainees.
Advocates have filed 25+ complaints against the facility over the years, which is what led to the original 2022 pause.
Advocates have separately asked EPA to investigate the chemical misuse (2022 letter, referenced again in the 2026 report).

Bond-Hearing Litigation — Fort Myers Division as a Key Venue

The Middle District of Florida’s Fort Myers Division — which hears habeas petitions from Glades detainees — has become one of the most active district-court venues in the national 2026 circuit split on mandatory detention without bond (see bond-hearing-circuit-split-2026). Three rulings granted habeas relief to Glades-detained individuals after the government argued they were categorically ineligible for bond hearings under § 1225(b):

Hinojosa Garcia v. Noem — Oct 31, 2025
Vasquez Carcamo v. Noem — Nov 7, 2025
Martinez Garcia v. Noem — Dec 2025 (also Cetino v. Noem, Dec 2025)

These Fort Myers district rulings preceded and align with the Eleventh Circuit’s own May 6, 2026 ruling in Hernández Álvarez v. Warden, FDC Miami (No. 25-14065), which held that immigrants who entered without inspection but were arrested in the interior are entitled to bond hearings under INA § 236(a) rather than mandatory detention — binding FL, GA, AL. Practically: Glades detainees are currently more likely to get a bond hearing than detainees transferred to Fifth/Eighth Circuit facilities, making Glades a favorable-forum data point in the broader “transfer as forum-shopping” pattern this KB tracks.

Context

Glades County is part of the broader Florida IGSA network that includes Baker County and Bradford County, through which the state provides county jail beds for ICE detention. These IGSA agreements — often facilitated by firms like Sabot Consulting — are a key mechanism for expanding detention capacity without federal facility construction. Glades is explicitly named in this KB’s own schema (kb/kb.yaml) as a “model county” that other sheriffs cite when pitched by consultants — i.e., Glades functions as a reference case in the Sabot-style sheriff-network pitch, not just a target.

Detention Pipeline

Glades County Detention Center — Moore Haven FL