By Bud Biddle, Chief of Police, Ret.
While riots consume Baltimore, Maryland tonight, another liberally run/wholly failing city with excessive, racial violence/looting like Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and others, I began thinking about the controversial, Guantanamo Bay Military Prison [-GBMP-] that we run in Cuba. The place Obama STUPIDLY / IGNORANTLY wants to close.!
I wanted to get my mind off the wholesale ineptitude of Baltimore officials, who aren’t dealing correctly with the lunatics in their city, so the Guantanamo Bay issues seemed like a good diversion ~ ~ ?
I believe G Bay should be turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and become the federal government’s newest, Maximum Security Prison…a ‘Super Max’ facility…remodeled for housing 3 specific inmate types. [1]…All terrorist’s from anywhere outside/inside the U.S., [2]…All Lifer’s w/no possibility of parole housed all over the U.S. now, [3]…All state and federal Death Row inmates housed throughout the U.S. now.
This new idea/policy/plan would isolate the worst/most violent-murderous criminals in U.S. and from global societies. Isolate them off-shore, for good. MIlitary Courts could deal with all the terrorists not arrested on U.S. soil just like they do now. Some civilian, U.S Courts could easily be set up at G Bay for regular Lifer’s and Death Row inmates converting to Lifer’s would not need access to courts as they’d have no avenue for Appeals. [-see below-] * *
The unique part of my years long, ongoing, off-the-wall idea, is the central part of my overall plan that even liberal’s might enjoy..!? The part * * which would deal with all the current, Death Row inmates housed everywhere the Death Penalty is lawful in our nation and takes years and years to implement, if ever.
* * ALL convicted, Death Row inmates would simply be given an offer by their respective states. They would have to agree, within 30 days of said offer, to drop all planned, ongoing or future Appeals to their conviction/death sentence for gaining a commutation of their death sentence to Life.
* * That they’d also have to accept, legally/in writing/court ratified, LIFE in prison forever…with no possibility of parole or Appeal, thereby waiving ALL avenues of Appeal forever, sans any absolving DNA evidence yet to be discovered. Kind of a final-final, post trial/conviction guilty plea with absolutely no way out. A choice given to live in Guantanamo Bay forever or eventually die from a state or federal, mainland execution.
State’s would have to pay the feds monthly/yearly for the prison space they’d use as they dumped the Death Row convicts and regular Lifer’s into the U.S. Government’s re-designed, Super Max site in Guantanamo Bay. The state’s costs would actually be much less as Death Row inmates cost each state about $250-300,000+ a year to house including the massive, free-to-the-inmate, legal costs.
Once there’s no avenue left for Death Row Appeals any states’ Death Row inmate cost’s would drop to about $50-$60,000 a year for ALL Lifer’s. Money that states saved could easily pay the feds for ALL the Lifer’s sent off shore.
If the powers-that-be don’t opt for my admittedly odd plan to keep G Bay open…my idea/planning should still be considered. That being…by then using my back-up Plan 2.
Back-up Plan 2 still takes the Death Penalty off any convicted inmate who personally opts for Life w/NO Appeal and simultaneously agrees to be housed in one, brand new, federal, Super Max, if they do close G Bay. A new, national, Terrorist/Lifer inmate prison to be centrally located/built in the middle of the U.S.. A highly specialized prison for housing the worst of the worst, including all foreign/local terrorists we’d convict.
Those who are against the Death Penalty would be pretty happy. States would have less costs/death penalty headaches and be happy..! The worst segments of society would be housed off-shore at G Bay…or at least in an exclusive on-shore, new, Super Max prison.
BUT…I still maintain that Guantanamo Bay, 90 miles off the USA coastline, is the best place to house all Terrorist’s, all of our Lifer’s and for all of our Death Row inmates who convert to Lifer’s w/out ANY possibility of parole/Appeal.
Obama’s Cuba is easy access for everyone now so that argument would have zero merit.
Obama should reconsider G Bay’s closure and get Congress and all the states on board with these ideas. They should at least be explored.
Baltimore is still burning…! The City Bosses and Maryland State Officials have been grotesquely irresponsible.
Delbert W. ‘Bud’ Biddle
Chief of Police, CA-r
Obama vs Reagan: How to handle terrorists
http://allenbwest.com/2015/04/obama-vs-reagan-how-to-handle-terrorists/
A sensible plan from my less than adequate perspective.
Is there enough room?
Cuba itself has lots of room, more than enough for our whole prison population, but we’re just talking about Gitmo land I guess. Gitmo would have to be expanded far beyond its footprint of course, but if Cuba would cooperate a bit we could have a good thing here.