David Alexander looked at the numbers behind Guantanamo Bay:

• The prison costs $150 million a year to operate – or $900,000 per prisoner.
• That means that every prisoner at Guantanamo costs 30 times more than the $30,000 that the average American prisoner costs.
• The high cost is due in part to the prison’s remote location. Everything has to be flown in including judges and the media during trials.
• Until recently administrators didn’t even reveal how much the prison cost. One expert suggests that in eleven years of operation the prison has cost up to $2 billion.
• Unless the prison is closed soon it will get a whole lot more expensive. Urgent investments of $170 million are needed to upgrade the living facilities of American troops overseeing the prisoners.

Read more about the political context of Guantanamo, what the money could be used for, why neither of the political parties are in favour of it, and more over here.

Source: Reuters