LANSING – Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she would continue to seek the re-opening of the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility despite Tuesday’s announcement by President Barack Obama that alleged terrorist detainees housed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be transferred to an Illinois prison, not Standish.
The Obama administration’s announcement that the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois, would house those detainees not sent to other countries prompted relief from Michigan critics of the plan, though they also criticized the decision to bring the them to the United States.
Granholm said serious talks between the federal government and Michigan never began.
“We answered their questions. We had questions as well,” she told reporters. “They must not have been ready to pursue it because they never came back and answered or engaged even in a conversation about that.”
Said Granholm, “Ultimately I believe that the Illinois facility worked out better for them.”
Granholm said she was “not necessarily” disappointed in the decision despite the October closure of the Standish prison. She said she has been speaking with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell about transferring some of that state’s prisoners to Standish.
“We are pursuing using that Standish facility in a way that would have more broad community support,” she said. “There was concern about Gitmo prisoners. Obviously, we want to make sure that that facility is used and that’s why we are aggressively pursuing other states.”
Rep. Tim Moore (R-Farwell), whose district includes the Standish prison, said the proposal to bring Gitmo detainees to the site divided the community and residents were still seeking answers to what such a move would have meant.
“It’s one more option that’s off the table in keeping that prison open,” he said.
Moore said local businesses, the schools and city are struggling with the prison closure, but they are still holding out hope Pennsylvania sends some of its prisoners to Michigan.
Rep. Joel Sheltrown (D-West Branch) agreed the issue very much divided the Standish community, but it didn’t likely drive the federal government to go with the Illinois facility.
Both Sheltrown and Moore said the state has to step up and provide another use for the facility given the communities dependence on the prison while it was open.
Michigan critics of Obama’s planned closure of the Guantanamo Bay facility said they took little comfort that detainees will move to Illinois instead of Michigan.
U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a candidate for governor, said the detainees belong at Guantanamo Bay, which is designed for their unique circumstances.
“I’m disappointed they’re going to Illinois. I think it’s a national security issue,” he said. “I was against moving them to any place on the mainland.”
Hoekstra said local sentiment in Standish mushroomed against bringing the detainees there.
“Once local sentiment started moving against Standish being the Gitmo North, the administration backed out,” he said. “I think the vast majority of people in Standish were opposed to it.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Brighton) blasted the move to bring the detainees to Illinois as a “very dangerous gamble” by Obama.
“Terrorists with one mission in life, to kill Americans and destroy America, do not belong in state prisons, no matter whether it is Michigan, Kansas, Illinois, or any other state,” he said in a statement. “These terrorists cannot be compared to the criminals housed in our state or federal prisons; they are different and much more dangerous.
The topic also has generated heat in the Republican race for attorney general.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop of Rochester, one of the candidates, said the decision compromises national security.
“It’s really the unfortunate result of a campaign promise,” he said. “I get no sense of satisfaction that they’re in a neighboring state rather than our state.”
Bishop’s opponent, former Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette, expressed greater satisfaction with the decision not to bring the detainees to Standish.
“The world’s most dangerous terrorists need to be on a military base, on an island, in the middle of an ocean, and that ZIP code still remains Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, not the USA. The world’s most dangerous terrorists never belonged in Michigan,” Schuette said in a statement. “This win belongs to the citizens of Michigan and the grassroots activists who made it clear to the politicians in Washington and Lansing that our state will not be Gitmo North.”
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