HARDIN, Mont. — On Capitol Hill, politicians are dead-set against transferring some of the world’s most feared terrorists from Guantanamo to prisons on U.S. soil. But at City Hall in this impoverished town on the Northern Plains, the attitude is: Bring ’em on.
Hardin, a town of 3,400 people so desperate that it built a $27 million jail years ago in the vain hope it would be a moneymaker, is offering to house Guantanamo detainees at the never-used institution.
Mayor Ron Adams said the jail could generate up to $300,000 a year for Hardin’s coffers if it were to open. That is about 20 percent of the town’s annual budget. It would also create more than 100 jobs.
The medium-security jail was conceived as a holding facility for drunks and other scofflaws, but town leaders said it could be fortified with a couple of guard towers and some more concertina wire. Apart from that, it is a turnkey operation, fully outfitted with everything from cafeteria trays and sweatsocks to 88 surveillance cameras.
"Holy smokes — the amount of soldiers and attorneys it would bring here would be unbelievable,” Clint Carleton said as he surveyed his restaurant, Three Brothers Pizza.
After Hardin’s six-member council passed a resolution last month in favor of taking the Guantanamo detainees, Montana’s congressional delegation was quick to pledge it would never happen.
Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer said this week that it is every state’s obligation to do its part in addressing terrorism. But he dismissed Hardin’s jail as not up to the task.
Some prison agencies, including the Montana Corrections Department, have said the jail does not meet their design and security standards, in part because of its dormitory-style rooms and lack of an exercise yard.
Some townspeople doubt it will come to pass.
"I saw on the news ... that there are only three prisons in the country that could hold them,” said Bill Moehr, 77, a former cattle ranch manager who lives next to the jail.
The amount of soldiers and attorneys it would bring here would be unbelievable,”
by the associated press
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