Ross confirmed reports that a survey team reviewed the Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas late last week. The team is also conducting a fact-finding mission at the Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, South Carolina.
"The surveys will develop a baseline that will be used in continuing efforts to develop options for the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and will allow us to provide Congress with accurate, up-to-date details regarding how detainees would be held in the United States," Ross said.
Other sites will also be considered in the future, but the Defense Department has not released that information yet.
According to US media reports, there are 116 prisoners remaining in the facility, 64 of which could be transferred to the United States, including the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, Khalid Sheik Mohammed.