Advertisement

Feinstein Says California Prisons Can Hold Gitmo Prisoners

Probably the only issue on which conservatives have made real headway so far this year is in pushing the preposterous idea that it’s somehow dangerous to hold terrorism suspects on American soil. This doesn’t make a lick of sense — we have many very secure prison facilities — and it has nothing to do with the original reasons offered for holding prisoners at Gitmo. But NIMBYism is a powerful force in politics, and now everyone’s freaking out. Dianne Feinstein hit back today:

Yes, we have maximum security prisons in California eminently capable of holding these people as well, and from which people — trust me — do not escape. So I believe that this has really been an exercise in fear-baiting. I hope it’s not going to be successful.

I wonder if there isn’t a promising potential plan here. You could do something that gave California federal funds in order to house some terrorism detainees in California state prisons. That would help, to some extent, alleviate the state’s budget problems.

Advertisement