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The prison economy and the war on terror meet in Montana

By Douglas A. Berman

The AP has this fascinating new piece, headlined "Montana town offers to take Guantanamo prisoners," which highlights how the prison economy can provide a different perspective on the war on terror.  Here are excerpts: 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 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...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 30, 2009 (boomark / email).