Hard-luck Montana town pushes to house Gitmo detainees

Hard-luck Montana town pushes to house Gitmo detainees

www.cnn.com

HARDIN, Montana (CNN) -- The tiny town of Hardin, Montana, is offering an answer to a very thorny question: Where should the nation put terror detainees if the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is shut down by the end of the year as President Obama has pledged?

Hardin, population 3,400, sits in the southeast corner of Montana, in the state's poorest county. Its small downtown is almost deserted at midday. The Dollar Store is going out of business. The Hardin Mini Mall is already shut. The town needs jobs -- and fast.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is very interesting. As more and more editorialists call for America to change it’s detainee policy and incarcerate accused terrorists on U.S. Soil it appears one place in America is brave enough to want to house them and capable of doing it.

Let’s see how the current Administration responds to this offer. A completely new, well built, totally empty, maximum security detention facility in one of the most remote and sparsely populated areas of the United States.

Of course that would mean the detainees would have access to Courts, Lawyers the Press and something called a fair trial. Perish the thought!

It’s nice to see not everyone in America though is afraid of their own shadow or the fact it’s virtually impossible to escape a maximum security prison except in the movies and on TV shows.


www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hardin borrowed $27 million through bonds to build the Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility in hopes of creating new employment opportunities. The jail was ready for prisoners two years ago, but has yet to house a single prisoner.

People here say politics in the capital of Helena has kept it empty. But the city council last month voted 5-0 to back a proposal to bring Gitmo detainees -- some of the most hardened terrorists in the world -- to the facility.

Oh dear the entrepreneurial and pioneering American ideals raising their ugly heads again.

This just won’t do in this politically correct Government by media decree age!

No doubt the Government will think the whole town needs locked up in it’s own jail!

Good for them! I back any American 100% that is coming up with ideas of how to save their towns. If I lived there, and the housing of the prisioners indeed took place, I wouldn't give the Press the time of day! I would have a job and the means to feed my family and in the end that is all that matters. This may not set well with everybody here, but it is the law of nature.

Didn't Congress pass a bill saying that the detainees wouldn't be housed on US soil? It'll be interesting to see how this'll work out.

Originally posted by PammyK
Good for them! I back any American 100% that is coming up with ideas of how to save their towns. If I lived there, and the housing of the prisioners indeed took place, I wouldn't give the Press the time of day! I would have a job and the means to feed my family and in the end that is all that matters. This may not set well with everybody here, but it is the law of nature.

I agree PammyK, I think this is an excellent and inovative idea that Congress and the Administration and the Justice Department should take a long hard look at.

I think it would go a long way to helping ease tensions abroad as well if we made some real effort to provide an equitable system of justice for the accused as well.

Sounds like a win-win to me. Obama gets to close down Gitmo and get the publicity of saving this little town and the little town gets a new industry to keep it going. Also geographically this seems like the perfect place to have such a facility. Since this country has been stupid enough to let it get this far and this our control, we have the responsibility to do the right thing and house these people on our soil. We also have the responsibility to give them fair hearings and get the process done. Housing these people in remote Montana while we process 'em through the system seems to be the right answer. Get it done Barack.

[edit on 26-5-2009 by CuriousSkeptic]

Originally posted by octotom
Didn't Congress pass a bill saying that the detainees wouldn't be housed on US soil? It'll be interesting to see how this'll work out.

I am not sure whether they have or have not passed it. I do know one was being discussed. I don't think it has come to vote as of yet.

I will check on that! Thanks for bringing that up.

Plus it is Montana . . . someone escapes, they will be shot on sight!

I kid . . . kind of

Originally posted by xxpigxx
Plus it is Montana . . . someone escapes, they will be shot on sight!

I kid . . . kind of

I spent a good bit of time in Montana years ago. 200,000 people and 52,000 bars, where 150,000 men fought over 10,000 single women, heaven help the detainee who escapes in that neighborhood!

It's a beautiful but very rugged state!

reply to post by CuriousSkeptic


Sounds like a win, win situation to me too friend. Let's see what comes of it now?

Twin Rivers Authority

Some very impressive pictures of this facility.

92,273 Square Feet

36 Separation Cells

12 Single Cells

24 Double Cells (48 beds)

10 Eight Bed Cells (80 beds)

12 Twenty-Four Bed Cells (288 beds)

Infrastructure will Support an Expansion up to 500 Additional Beds

14 Bed Infirmary with 8 Beds having Negative Air Flow

Dental facility and Pharmacy

Laundry Facility on Site

Kitchen Contract with Aramark

Commissary Contract with Aramark

Indoor and Outdoor Recreation yards

7 Classrooms for GED, Substance Abuse Programming and Other Treatment Services.

I think the good folks of Hardin Montana have come up with a gread idea here.

I am going to write my Senator and Congress People here in Florida and recomend this!

"All of the senators are running for the hills, and all of the representatives. So we really are nowhere except we've got a town that says, 'We have the place and we have the will.' "

Americans who think this is a good idea ought to write to their Congress people and Senators.

Who knows maybe someone will help do that for you if your own community needs a bump and a nod from Washington in the future?