LANSING – Michigan appears to have priced itself out of the market for out-of-state prisoners, at least for one of its possible prison lessees. California Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate told Michigan Corrections Director Patricia Caruso in a letter late Monday that the Golden State could not afford to send prisoners to the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility as the two had been discussing.

But state officials continued to raise concerns about bringing in detainees from the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an alternative to keep the facility open. That debate intensified Tuesday as more legislators jumped into the debate, and U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland) testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the issue.

“The Standish Maximum Security Facility would lend itself to the housing of our medium security (level II and level III) inmates with some plant modifications,” Cate said. “However, the proposed per diem rate offered for the use of the facility is significantly higher than rates we are currently paying to contract for other out-of-state beds.”

he said those other rates include healthcare and other services that would make the Michigan facility even more expensive.

Though the prison was designed to house maximum-security inmates, Cate said it did not meet California’s standards for that security level.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, at a press event Tuesday, said the decision was disappointing, but that the rates were designed to cover the state’s costs for operating the facility.

“Certainly we wanted to be able to pay for our facility,” she said. “And they had to pay for it up front, no IOUs.”

Granholm said she still had other options for using the prison, including Pennsylvania and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She said the latter option would potentially allow the federal government room in its own prisons to house the current Guantanamo residents.

“I’m very concerned about the homeland security implications” of bringing the detainees to the state, she said. “I want answers that satisfy me.”

Granholm expected that the federal detainees would only be moved to states and communities that welcomed them, so she did not expect Michigan would be forced to take them because it has prison space open.

Hoekstra told the Senate Judiciary Committee that moving the detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the United States could have serious security consequences.

Hoekstra is the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee and gets high-level access to information about the detainees. He has asked the U.S. departments of Defense and Justice to release classified information about the detainees to state and local officials.

Hoekstra, who is also running for governor, said state officials should insist on this information. The committee reported two resolutions (SR 73 and SCR 17 ) asking that the federal government make the information available to the governor and the Legislature.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to close the Guantanamo Bay facility by January 22, 2010.

Hoekstra said he is confident no detainees would escape from the Standish facility, but the prospect of a detainee getting released onto Michigan streets worries him. Once detainees arrive on U.S. soil, they are entitled to civil liberties and constitutional protections although it is unclear how much protection they received at Guantanamo.

“We’re now kind of painting a target on our back that wasn’t there before,” he said.

Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) said officials must have all the facts as they study the situation. “We have to ask questions, and if we don’t, we get mired in bad decisions,” she said.

Sen. Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt) said it gave him chills reading about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001. According to the Pentagon, Mohammed also has confessed to the decapitation killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

“I don’t know that we have any prisoners … that approach this level of hatred that this man has for the United States,” he said, comparing the detainees to accepting prisoners from other states.

Sen. Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit), the top Democrat on the committee, asked Mr. Hoekstra how much weight the views of local officials should be given in the process, as well as preserving jobs. With the Standish facility set to close, there is some sentiment in the community that maintaining the facility is worth accepting the accused terrorists.

Hoekstra said local and state input should be considered, but ultimately the federal government must decide based on national security considerations, not economic worry. He is scheduled to meet with Standish community leaders this week.

“You want people to go through this in a rationale decision-making model,” he said. “You don’t want them to do it out of fear.”

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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