The U.S. prison system is riddled with issues and debates- one of the biggest and most vexing being what happens to prisoners after they are released. The function of most prisons is to punish prisoners for their crimes, not rehabilitate them or prepare them for life on the “outside,”to somehow get them to pay their debt to society- when they get out they are pretty much on their own. There are placement programs, but the fact remains that when a prisoner reenters the civilian workforce there are not many opportunities available.

You can only imagine how much those issues multiply for people who are held for any length of time at Guantanamo, a name that has become as infamous in the public sphere as San Quentin or Alcatraz.
People from around the world are held there, most famously under suspicion of terrorism. The reality is also that many of those held are held without charges and are never charged or found guilty of anything. Add Guantanamo and terrorism to your resume when you leave prison and imagine how difficult it must be to start your life again when you get out or how dismal the job prospects must be.

Four recently released Chinese Muslim Uighur detainees are working at the Port Royal golf course, host of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf that happens in October. The men had been held at Guantanamo for seven years as suspected terrorists. The hire has brought  some calls of “fore!” from local authorities, as the standard policy is that foreigners are only allowed jobs if there are no qualified residents who want the job. Chairman of the board of trustees Wendall Brown explained the hire by saying that four Filipino workers left their jobs on short notice.

"They have been offered a temporary position at Port Royal until the Grand Slam. There are still special projects that we need to do like cleaning up and beautifying the course ... All four of them have been given a job there. It's on a temporary basis. Two of them speak fairly good English,” he said.
But will they be working during the golf tournament? Brown said it is likely.

Apparently they were held far beyond when they needed to be- long after the U.S. military courts determined that there was no threat posted by the men. They could not be moved to China because there was a risk for prosecution, but the U.S. didn’t want them to immigrate either.

So they have found a home and some work in Bermuda at the golf course. Ex-pats living and working in Bermuda is not uncommon- in fact, ex-pats make up 1/3 of the work force there, out of a population of 65,000.

Four men held with no charges, deemed as no threat, but unable to return to their home country of China and unwanted in the United States. While Britain is upset and says that Bermuda does not have the political right to offer the men employment, it seems that they have navigated the 19th hole of life after prison. At least until the next round.