Saturday, April 25, 2009
City officials in Hardin, Montana, have one thing to say to those worried about detainees from the soon-to-be shuttered facility at Guantánamo Bay coming stateside: Send them our way. The small town of 3,400 has a brand new prison waiting for occupants, and filling it up with suspected terrorists and combatants is just fine with local leaders. The 460-bed detention facility was built to house state prisoners, but a deal with Montana corrections fell through. Hardin offered to house prisoners from other states, but still no luck. Opening the prison would mean creating more than 100 high-paying jobs for the local economy.
Local officials cite several reasons why Hardin should house America’s most unwanted bad guys. The prison would need only minor upgrades to make it a maximum-security facility, and because detainees would constitute the entire prison population, it would be easy to accommodate prisoners’ dietary, language and religious requirements. Nearby Laurel, Montana, was the site of a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. Also, federal court services are easily accessible in Billings. And if someone were to escape, they would easily stand out in relatively homogenous Montana, which is 92% white
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Hardin Jail Tries for Detainees from Gitmo (by Becky Shay, Billings Gazette)
Misunderstanding Leaves Hardin Prison Standing Empty (by Jennifer McKee, Helena Independent Record)
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