Gitmo Gets Its Own $750,000 Soccer Field
Guantanamo Bay detainees will soon have a new way to pass the time. A soccer field has been laid at the Gitmo detention facility, and will be available for use from this spring. It will only be open to “highly compliant” detainees at Guantanamo’s Camp 6.
News of the soccer field leaked after reporters were given a tour of the detention camp on Tuesday. And the $750,000 bill for the field provoked the usual hysterical shrieks from the right – even if it is similar to the facilities at scores of other U.S. prisons and detention centers.
Work on the the field was started in April 2011, and the facility will shortly be open to detainees for around 20 hours a day. Inmates will be able to get to the pitch via secured passageways that allow them to reach the recreation yard without the need for military escorts.
While on the tour, a military police representative who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News that permitting outdoor activity was a sensible strategy, as it reduced behavior problems at the camps and also limited the amount of interaction between detainees and guards.
Improving inmate behavior sounds like a smart move that will make everybody’s life better, but obviously it doesn’t make as great a narrative as ‘AMERICA’S ENEMIES GET FREE SOCCER FIELDS.’
The soccer field, which is around half the size of a football field, was constructed because the sport is highly popular with detainees, the bulk of whom come from countries where soccer is the most popular sport.
[Via Fox News]
