HARDIN, Mont., May 29, 2009
Montana Town: Bring Gitmo Prisoners Here
Town Of Hardin Wants To Fill $27 Million Jail In Order To Make Money
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The entrance to the Two Rivers Detention Center in Hardin, Mont. is shown on May 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
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Hardin, a dusty town of 3,400 people so desperate that it built a $27 million jail a couple of years ago in the vain hope it would be a moneymaker, is offering to house hundreds of Gitmo detainees at the empty, never-used institution.
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 mostly empty restaurant, Three Brothers Pizza. "I'm a lot more worried about some sex offender walking my streets than a guy that's a world-class terrorist. He's not going to escape, pop into the IGA (supermarket), grab a six-pack and go sit in the park."
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.
Notwithstanding the reputation of Montanans as Second Amendment-loving gun owners, they said that putting terrorists on Montana soil could invite attacks from the detainees' sympathizers.
"These Gitmo guys, they're a scary bunch," said Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat. "You've got to realize what you're getting into."
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.
A White House spokesman on Thursday declined to comment on Hardin's proposal and said there has been no decision on what to do with the detainees.
The jail's No. 1 promoter, Greg Smith, executive director of Hardin's economic development agency, said the Two Rivers Detention Center could easily be retrofitted to increase security. And while the town hasn't had its own police force since the 1970s, Smith said the jail's well-armed neighbors would constitute an "unofficial redneck patrol."
While some townspeople welcome the idea as a way to produce jobs and put the jail to use, others worry that it would be too dangerous.
One of the jail's neighbors, Bill Eshleman - a 72-year-old retired postal worker who said he keeps his .30-06 hunting rifle loaded and ready - said the detainees would invite trouble, and he would rather see them sent back where they came from.
But he joked that his rifle was "very accurate," and backed up the claim by pointing to a pronghorn antelope head propped along his fenceline, a trophy from last hunting season.
His wife, Clara, squirmed uncomfortably in the face of her husband's bravado, and said she is dead-set against Hardin becoming America's Gitmo. As a matter of civic pride, she said she wants to put bad guys in the jail to relieve the town of what has become a community embarrassment.
"But not the Gitmos," she said. "They're the worst of the worst."
Hardin - situated about an hour's drive from Billings on the edge of the Crow Indian Reservation, not far from the Little Bighorn, where Custer made his last stand - is beset with high unemployment and a poverty rate double the national average. It built the 464-bed jail on spec - that is, with no contracts lined up ahead of time to take prisoners.
Attempts to bring offenders, out-of-state criminals and federal inmates to Hardin have all failed, and the bonds issued to pay for construction are now in default.
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. Others said they had no need for the jail or selected a competing proposal.
Inside its concrete walls, orange jumpsuits, rubber sandals and stacks of white tube socks weigh down the shelves of the storeroom. Computers, phones and video monitors line the tables in the control room. In the cafeteria, stacks of plastic trays and cooking utensils wait to be put to use.
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.
Some townspeople - whether they like the idea or not - doubt it will come to pass.
"I saw on the news last night that there are only three prisons in the country that could hold them, maximum-security prisons. So what's this little one-horse deal? There ain't a chance in hell," said Bill Moehr, 77, a former cattle ranch manager who lives next to the jail.
Bonnie Kennedy, a 60-year-old convenience store clerk who also lives next door, chuckled when asked if she thought terrorists would be moving in any time soon.
"Like that's going to ever happen. But it did put us back on the map," she said. "I can't say I like it, but it might get us some interest from somebody who could actually use it."
© MMIX, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 32 CommentsYes, there is a point, the liberal polititions should take on the responsibility of these people they want to bring here, so, just for the sake of the President and his ego and the ego of his staff and liberal followers, they should make it a personal thing to show the rest of the country how safe it is for them to be here. Don't you agree?
Posted by Aldymac at 4:24 PM : May 31, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink
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Is there actually a point here?
Posted by IrishWench01
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That's just the problem.....most have not been charged with anything, and there is no evidence that any crime has been committed. That's why bush/cheney never tried them and after current review by President Obama, he's come to the same conclusion that most cannot be tried in a court of law since there is no evidence or charges, despite cheney's allegations that this is "the worst of the worst." Seems as if President Obama is between a rock and a hard place due to the ineptness of the bushies.
Posted by apple2pie at 11:39 AM : May 30, 2009
You mean Congress
Posted by dwilson59 at 11:41 AM ............
And if any of them are not guilty of what they have been charged? Just let God and Allah sort it all out in the afterlife. Is that what we have become. We think they are all evil because of their beliefs and therefore they are All guilty of crimes against America and non-Muslims, therefore they must die.
It is becoming difficult to separate one type of zealot from another. As a nation, are we to become what we most despise?
How very sad for all of humanity. The gift we call our world is becoming a very ugly place.
Posted by IrishWench01 at 11:00 AM : May 30, 2009
Just shoot them and be done with it. Let them talk it out with Allah
Posted by stryker54 at 10:40 AM ...
But somehow, through some legal procedure, tribunal... something. It needs to be determined if they are in fact guilty and all need to be permanently imprisoned or executed. There needs to be official and just closure of each individual case.
Posted by stryker54 at 10:40 AM : May 30, 2009
You see my point just shoot them!!!!!
Posted by justsane-2009 at 10:25 AM ....
P.S By the by, those "officials" you reference, do have accountability to the state and the people. That prison doesn't belong Florence.
Posted by justsane-2009 at 10:25 AM .......
Apparently this situation is a bit different. No need to be snippy,. I have just as much right to speak up about something that has been suggested, requested, or may or may not happen in my state, just as you do. Since I happen to live in Colorado and that prison is housed here, that makes it my business as well as every other resident in this state. Do you think others won't have a voice. Now people may choose to ignore us, but that does not take away our voice. Incidentally, my comment did not express my desire or lack of having them here.
Problem Solved
ha ha ha ha OMG have you ever been to Hardin.
Where are they going to go when they escape.
It's in the middle of nowhere.
I have had to hitch hike out of Hardin before. Guess what. It aint a good spot to get a ride.
ha ha ha h oh my god you republicans are the dumbest piles of #&$^ this earth ever produced.
Hardin has been shafted for decades.
Too bad Obama is too spineless to do it.
And, the GOP is too busy wipping the paranoid freak conservatives into a lather over nothing.
We should send Cheney and Bush iw/ the Gitmo POWs to Hardin.
At least the Hardin folks care enough about America to take them.
The conservatives just want to use the issue for their usual political idiot-fest..
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