More than 200 detainees with suspected ties to terrorism will need to go somewhere if President Barack Obama succeeds in closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center. One possibility: the former state corrections facility at Camp Manistique in Schoolcraft County in Michigan's job-starved and spacious Upper Peninsula.
What do U.P. residents think of holding Gitmo detainees in an Upper Peninsula prison? Turn to the Grand Rapids Press and mlive.com/grand-rapids on Sunday to find out.
But before you go forming your own opinions, check out these numbers:
Schoolcraft County population in 2008 (estimated): 8,220
Median household income for Schoolcraft in 2007: $36,842
Percentage of Schoolcraft residents below the poverty line in 2007: 14.5
Percentage of Schoolcraft residents unemployed in March: 18.2
Percentage of Schoolcraft residents unemployed in April: 16.2
Schoolcraft unemployment rank among Michigan's 83 counties: 18
Current detainees at Guantanamo Bay: 232
Rough number of detainees approved for release by President Barack Obama's review panels as of May: 50.
Camp Manistique prisoner capacity when it opened in 1993: 216
Supermax cells at federal prison in Florence, Colorado: 480
Supermax cells available in late May: 1
Inmates to escape from a federal supermax: 0
Size of Camp Manistique, in acres: 30.297
In square miles: 0.047339
Size of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in square miles: 45
In acres: 28,800
Guantanamo detainee-to-guard ratio in 2005: 8:1
Guantanamo detainees who have been charged with a crime: 10
Cost of building Guantanamo high-security facilities: $54,000,000
Minimum annual cost of operating Guantanamo (estimated): $90,000,000
Former Michigan governors endorsing a move to "Gitmo North": 1
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth; The Petoskey News; Michigan Department of Corrections; U.S. Department of Defense; Fox News; Amnesty International; Global Security.org; Metric Converter.org; Politifact.com's Truth-O-Meter
E-mail Dan Hawkins: dhawkins@grpress.com