There's a library for detainees being held at Gitmo.
Detainees never come into the library.
The library isn't accepting board game donations from anyone.
Though I see none, board games have been part of the detention facility for years.
The Joint Detention Group began providing electronic games to detainees in 2008 to provide mental stimulation as part of the overall mission to ensure humane treatment. As technology evolved, systems were upgraded from the Nintendo to the PS3 between 2011 and 2012. Currently, both JDG Detainee Programs and individual detainee lawyers provide games to be used on consoles provided by the JDG. Board games haven't been provided by Detainee Programs since 2007 or 2008. Detainees are not using board games right now due to a lack in interest. The board games are in storage.
Maybe the games really are in storage.
The future of the detainee games library is uncertain.
The final thing I know about the Detainee Library is…
- What might happen to all those games in storage in the unlikely event that Donald Trump signed an Executive Order closing the Joint Task Force's operations in Gitmo?
- How might game culture at Gitmo change if the U.S. government started to send female detainees or captured ISIS combatants there?
- If chess and checkers were once deemed appropriate, would it ever be conceivable that the JTF would accept tabletop strategy war-games?
- Just how much has the U.S. government and Red Cross spent on buying video games and board games for the Detainee Library between January 2002 and June 2017?
- In the coming decades, will we see board games and video games that model Gitmo and include the Detainee Library in their design?
- What games have the families of detainees played, as they've waited for the return of their loved ones, as they've tried to distract themselves from the gaping hole in their households?