By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. officials say a Defense Department team will be visiting a state and a federal prison in Colorado to assess their possible use to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the Obama administration’s plan to close that detention center.
Officials say that within the next two weeks the team will visit the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City and the so-called Supermax federal prison in Florence.
The Pentagon team has also surveyed the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina. The reviews assess construction costs and other changes needed to house the detainees and conduct military commission trials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the visits publicly.