The Brig was commissioned on November 30, 1989 and accepted its first prisoners in January 1990. It has 400 cells and can hold 288 inmates.[4] It houses prisoners from all branches of the US Armed Services and conducts the Navy's Violent Offender Treatment Program. It has been accredited by the American Correctional Association eleven times: 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022, receiving 100% compliance on each correctional standard.
In October 2008 91 pages of memos drafted in 2002 by an officer at the brig
became public.[6][7]
The memos indicate that officers were concerned that the isolation and lack of stimuli were driving Hamdi, Padilla and Al-Marri insane.
On October 12, 2011, the Charleston Post and Courier reported on memos from E.P. Giambastiani to Charles StimsonDeputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, requesting that Hamdi, Padilla and al Marri be transferred to Guantanamo.[5]
The memos were from 2005.
Giambastiani's request was declined.
The memos were released to the Post and Courier in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, filed eight years previously, for information about changes to the role of the prison triggered by al Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001. They wrote that when the DoD's response was finally received, "A Pentagon official apologized but gave no explanation for the long delay."
References
^"Visitor Information[permanent dead link]." Naval Consolidated Brig Charleston. Retrieved on May 30, 2010. The source says "The brig is located on the South Annex of the Naval Weapons Station located in North Charleston, SC." - While much of the base may lie in the city limits of North Charleston, the map of Hanahan and the base map show that the brig is located in Hanahan.