Guantanamo Bay is the World's Most Expensive Prison

GODREKR · #1 ● 08-02-2013, 03:10 PM

The total US tab for housing enemy combatants will top $5.2 billion by 2014.

Guantanamo Bay (pictured), where the U.S. government holds some of history's worst mass murderers, is the most expensive prison the world has ever seen, with a total price tag expected to top $5 billion next year.

According to The Miami Herald, citing new figures from Democrats calling for Guantanamo's closure, the Pentagon spends about $500 million annually on the modern-era Devil's Island. That works out to $2.7 million per prisoner. There are about 166 prisoners at Guantanamo, including the confessed mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Senator Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who has long advocated for the prison's closure, told the paper that the America's most secure prison, the so-called Supermax in Florence, Colo., costs about $78,000 per year to operate on a per-prisoner basis. That facility has 439 prisoners.

As Quartz notes, one reason why Guantanamo is so expensive is its location within the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Everything from supplies to judges must be shipped more than 1,000 miles from Washington, D.C. The prison's staff includes members of the military, the Department of Justice, the FBI and probably the CIA.

The paper quotes Durbin as saying that the costs "would be fiscally irresponsible during ordinary economic times. But it's even worse when the Department of Defense is struggling to deal with the impact of sequestration, including the furloughs and cutbacks and training for our troops."

He has a point, no?

Guantanamo Bay was supposed to be temporary when it first opened in 2002. The facility has grown considerably and now includes a secret lock-up for ex-CIA prisoners called Camp 7, whose costs are considered classified, the Herald said. About 779 people have done time at Guantanamo, according to Human Rights Watch.

When he first ran for office, President Obama called for the prison's closure. He backed off on the idea after Republicans balked. Now, it appears as though he is warming to the idea again.

Human Rights First estimates there are 355 terrorists behind bars in U.S. jails, which underscores that money used to operate Guantanamo is not well spent. No one has escaped.

For now, though, Guantanamo Bay isn't going anywhere and its costs continue to climb. The Department of Defense has requested almost $200 million to upgrade the facility.

Source