A Look Inside the Secretive World of Guantánamo Bay

July 18, 2019 | The New York Times

Carol Rosenberg. Images by Doug Mills.

Nearly two decades after it was opened to house terrorism suspects and enemy fighters picked up on the battlefield in Afghanistan, the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, remains shrouded in secrecy. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

A four-day trip put on by the United States military, which reviewed every photo to determine if it could be published without violating secrecy rules, showed the base to be a mix of the mundane and the extraordinary. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

The trip began at a Navy airfield in Jacksonville, Fla. An Army captain met reporters and photographers before dawn to chaperone them onto a charter that regularly shuttles to Guantánamo. Image by Doug Mills. United States, 2019.

This trip was the only one so far in 2019 to give journalists access to the zone where 40 prisoners are held, and to allow interviews with prison staff. The rules on photography include strict limits on showing the faces of base personnel. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

In a rare exception, Coast Guard forces who patrol the bay permit photography of their faces. The Coast Guard's Port Security Units, drawn from across the United States, serve nine-month rotations at Guantánamo Bay. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

During the four-day visit, only a few hours were allocated to the Sprawling Detention Center Zone, whose staff of 2,000 United States military personnel and civilians oversees the remaining 40 detainees, just one of whom has been convicted of a war crime. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

Prison public affairs teams encourage photographers to take pictures of this model cell, with a display of the kinds of things the military provides general population prisoners — including a skullcap, prayer beads, and a prayer rug. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

For this trip, reporters were shown a small selection of books kept in two empty cells in what is known as the Camp 6 recreation block. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

Reporters and photographers were brought to a trailer park area that is home to soldiers who conduct security patrols outside the prison, as distinct from those who guard the detainees. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

Most troops are housed inside the detainee zone, with officers in one suburban-style neighborhood and prison guards in another. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

It has a commissary, neighborhoods for Navy families, a school system for sailors' children and fast-food restaurants run by foreign laborers that are mostly popular with the people who come without their families. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

About one-third of the base residents are Jamaican and Filipino guest workers, but the military generally forbids photography of them. They are stalwarts of the base's service sector, for example working at the base's McDonalds. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

To document this trip, the photographer Doug Mills presented his photos for review. The military censors images it believes could threaten security, like showing locks and cameras, or impinge on the privacy of detainees. Mr. Mills had to delete as many of 40 percent of his images from the detention center. Image by Doug Mills. Cuba, 2019.

Carol Rosenberg's project for The New York Times and the Pulitzer Center delves into the conditions of the prison at Guantánamo Bay and the experiences of its detainees. This series of photographs by Doug Mills was produced by Rebecca Lieberman and Marisa Schwartz Taylor. View the full interactive experience on The New York Times website.