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| Obama Officials Tour Standish Prison as Possible Site for Guantanamo Detainees |
| By publicbroadcasting.net |
| Published: 08/14/2009 |
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Representatives from four federal agencies visited a maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan yesterday. They want to see if it can house prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. But not everyone in the rural community wants accused terrorists as neighbors. Standish, Michigan is 150 miles north of Detroit. When plans were announced 20 years ago to build a maximum security prison in the small town, many residents were unhappy - and afraid. But the prison was built, it provided jobs and revenue, and nobody ever escaped. Today Michigan plans to close the prison as part of state cutbacks. Russ Marlan is the spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. He knows Standish depends on the prison, and the state is open to housing prisoners from outside of Michigan. "What we did not want to do was close this facility and transfer all of these employees and have a vacant facility here without employees that would be unable to accept another agencies prisoners rather quickly," says Marlan. One proposed solution is to let the federal government use the prison to relocate detainees from Guantanamo Bay. There's no formal proposal, but representatives of the Defense, Justice and Homeland Security departments and the Bureau of Prisons spent three hours yesterday touring the lockup. But many of the people who live in Standish are not excited about the possibility of 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters moving in as neighbors. Karen Cook is in her 70s. She wants the prison to stay open, but has mixed feelings about this solution. "I hope we keep it, you know. I don't know about - how you say it - Kuwana Bay - or any of them bad ones coming in, but other than that, I hope our men can keep working. Men and women," says Cook. At the Standish Bakery and Restaurant, the usual regulars are eating breakfast. Ellen Milleur agrees with most of the crowd that she doesn't want Guantanamo prisoners here. "It scares me right to my core," says Milleur, "Because those people have no cause for life. In my opinion, they were born to die." Thomas Birkett has been warden at Standish prison for 11 years. He stresses it's a secure facility, and nobody has ever escaped from it. Still, he understands why people are worried about bringing foreign prisoners to town. "It conjures up all kinds of images of jihad and different things and I don't think, unless you're actually working there, you really know what all of those prisoners are about that are there right now," says Birkett. But not everyone is against the idea. Read More. |
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