Inside Gitmo by Gordon Cucullu

Author:Gordon Cucullu
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061976957
Publisher: HarperCollins

Communal No Longer

Camp VI is an imposing structure, solid and modern. Its clean, crisp lines contrast incongruously with the tropical vegetation that grows just beyond the tall chain-link fence with the coiled razor wire atop it. The noncommissioned officer in charge, a U.S. Navy senior chief petty officer, says that the facility is modeled after a county prison in Michigan.

The latest and, at this point, final link in the chain of prisons, Camp VI was finished in November 2006. By mid-December almost 50 detainees had been moved into the various pods. It had been scheduled to open almost a month earlier, but ribbon cutting was delayed until the interior living space, designed for communal living, could be retrofitted.

The original concept for communal living was based on the hypothesis—strongly held by then–JTF commander General Jay Hood—that some, perhaps most, of the detainees could be trusted to live quietly and in relative harmony with the guards at some future time. The basis for Hood’s hypothesis was that fair, humane, even generous treatment toward the detainees would be acknowledged by compliant behavior and a diminution of their jihadist ideology and mission.

When in the difficult May–June period of 2006 three attempted suicides were followed by a Camp IV uprising and ultimately by three successful suicides in Camp I, the whole theory of rating detainees for compliancy and the practice of rewarding better compliancy by increased trust—the rewards conveyed by more communal living—was called into question.

“It didn’t take us long to realize that most of our problems were originating from the groups we labeled ‘compliant,’ primarily in Camp I and in Camp IV,” Wade Dennis said. “Therefore the Admiral changed the plans for the new Camp VI facility.” How so?

Admiral Harris had been convinced from the start that the medium-security camp, Camp IV, and Camp I, together housing the “most compliant” detainees, posed the greatest threats. In both camps, detainees who had been rated compliant were permitted the most communication with each other along with the most mingling. Unfortunately, detainees violated the trust placed upon them and plotted to kill American guards and harm themselves. In reviewing the outcome of the previous policy, Harris concluded that “there is no such thing as a medium-security terrorist.”11

Camp VI is a $37 million structure originally designed as a communal facility in which maximum recreation time, co-mingling, and socialization among detainees was permitted. Camp VI has eight separate pods surrounding common areas. Each pod is two-story, with a high-ceilinged, roughly circular interior, and contains 22 individual cells plus a common area. Pod interior space is very open and well lit, with both skylights and protected fluorescent lighting. Cells have protected fluorescent lighting and are painted a light, neutral color.

Each cell measures 6 feet, 8 inches in width by 12 feet in depth, for an 81-square-foot capacity. Both Camps V and VI meet or exceed the American Correctional Association standards of 80 square feet space per cell. When filled, single-bunk Camp VI holds 176 detainees. If double-bunking is necessary—and that

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