Dear Editor:

Remember Guantanamo?

January 11, 2021 marks the 19th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Forty people are still held in Guantanamo, and most of them have never been charged, let alone tried, for any crime.

The prison at Guantanamo costs the U.S. taxpayer over half a billion dollars per year – half a billion dollars to hold 40 prisoners! That’s about 13 million dollars per prisoner per year – making Guantanamo the most expensive, least efficient prison on the planet.

To close Guantanamo is one of the promises that President-elect Biden made to us. It is not the most pressing. But it is important. The problem can be solved by either trying the prisoners there in federal courts, or transferring them to other countries.

Indefinite detention without trial is wrong. It’s a form of torture. And torture is a moral issue.

Susan van Alsenoy

Wiscasset