Guantanamo Bay

Detention Redefined

How did I become sensitive to wrongful incarceration? Mmm, let’s see. 

Well, both my parents were incarcerated in a mental hospital and my father alone was jailed when I was a child related to illegal guardianships and conservatorships by the State of Michigan. My father was locked up with a signature from a psychiatrist who never met or examined him; and my mother was committed to the same psychiatric hospital after demanding to see the probate court accounting for assets taken from my parents through a judge's signature.

Under that same happy umbrella, my brothers and I were incarcerated at Child Haven in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Police had stopped my parents while we were driving and made my parents get out of the car. I watched through the back window as my mother cried while looking at papers. I don't think she saw me watching her. A policeman asked me if I wanted to 'ride in a police car'. When I said 'No', the officer physically removed me from my parent's car. We drove to our new 'haven' in the police car.

I have an indelible memory of a huge nurse at Child Haven who tried to get me to take some pills, telling me that they 'make you not angry'. When I said 'No', she weighed me down on my assigned bed by sitting on my legs and pressing my arms down to administer these.

When I first arrived, she had taken me into a bathroom alone and told me to get undressed. When I said 'No', she forcibly undressed me, put me in a tub, and scrubbed me down using a handheld sprayer. She treated me like someone might handle a dog they didn't like. I was five or six at the time. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ignored my complaints about this and more, sitting on her desk since 2019 and on former Governor Snyder's desk since 2011. 

Why Discuss Guantanamo Bay Now?

Because last week I watched ‘The Mauritanian’, a feature film collaboration with BBC that tells the story of the unlawful imprisonment and torture of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Naturally I thought of my parents. Hats off to Nancy Hollander, the Jewish attorney who represented Slahi until he was released from Guantanamo in 2016 — after 14 years of imprisonment without being convicted or even charged, all under the banner of the United States flag. I am ashamed of what America did at Guantanamo in my name as an American citizen.

Habeas Corpus, Rasul v. Bush (2004)

Abuse of detainees at Guantanamo was at first premised on the idea that Cuba is not America and therefore what happens in Cuba stays in Cuba.  Fortunately in 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Habeas Corpus applies to all persons imprisoned at Guantanamo. 

New Uses for GITMO

Amnesty International encouraged closure for Guantanamo stating: “We urge him (Biden) to finally end the abhorrent U.S. practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial at Guantanamo by transferring the remaining detainees who have never been charged with crimes. This would be a tremendous achievement of his presidency.” 

Though Biden did safely transfer untried detainees to Oman in January 2025, the base was not closed and now Trump seeks to repurpose Gitmo for ‘high threat’ alleged illegal immigrants. It’s not that we lack space within our legitimate borders to house and address such persons, it’s that doing so at home is transparent. If detained persons are housed nearby, the prison can be scrutinized by Americans who oppose torture, including illegal incarceration.

Misunderstanding Safety

In my lifetime America has increased military response to everything from traffic stops to mental health. Yet these increasingly fatal escalations do not make us safer. A 2021 Pew Center survey showed that both Democrats and Republicans have less than 50% confidence in policing and a Nevada Department of Sentencing Policy report from 2022 states:  "After years of reform efforts focusing on a harmful and largely ineffective arrest-and-incarcerate model, we must commit to innovative strategies that invest in the things more likely to foster safety: income, housing, and access to care."

The Meaning of Home

The looming question is whether and when we will demilitarize our approach to life at home. And whether and when America will take ownership for creating conflict abroad and causing others to loathe us. We want to own everything, except our sins. Islamic countries that reject pornography, drugs, prostitution, and abortion understandably resent Western countries exporting such to their communities and homes. 

As a woman also harmed by these industries, I'm angry about it too. 

I hope that others will join me in demanding that elected officials help our Nation demilitarize while promoting true safety through cultural and legal frameworks that do not tolerate and much less profit by exploiting women and children.

Marsha Plafkin Hurwitz

May 1, 2025