The plight of Guantanamo detainees grows only more distressing. President Obama’s encouraging quick promise to close Gitmo has given way to the threat — particularly shocking from a constitutional law professor — of “prolonged detention.”

Most of the detainees were turned in by Afghanis seven years ago for the large rewards we carelessly bestowed. The 775 incarcerated have dwindled to some 245, with only 10 tried (plus one currently in process) and three convicted. The three convictions include Osama bin Laden’s driver and someone who made a film about the bombing of the USS Cole — not, surely, the “most wanted.”

At least 55 of the prisoners have been cleared for release. Consider the 17 Uighurs: Muslims persecuted in China and denounced for bounties in Pakistan. Exonerated of any wrongdoing in 2003 and cleared for release, they couldn’t be returned to China to face likely torture. Uighurs here were ready to take them in, but our government wouldn’t allow it. (Happily, Bermuda and Palau recently agreed to take a few.) Other detainees cleared for release are similarly stuck.

Continuing to hold these 55 people is untenable and contrary to the rule of law. Justice requires that we release them. On Obama’s 100th day, 62 courageous people were arrested while making this point. Their crime: failure to obey a lawful order to stop standing in front of the White House with a banner, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.”

Guantanamo has been outside the rule of law (our Constitutional guarantees of due process and habeas corpus, as well as our treaties including the Geneva Conventions guaranteeing humane treatment). The broader question is not only about Guantanamo but about justice being served. The danger that the detention facility at Bagram, Afghanistan, is the “new Gitmo”—even farther away and operated without transparency — is very real. Our own maximum-security prisons, which hold our most violent criminals and, yes, terrorists, are practical and appropriate.

Our security depends on observing our principles of justice and rule of law. Unlawful, unjust policies won’t make us safer. If we hold people because we fear what they have become after years of abuse and isolation, heaping injustice upon injustice, our enemies will multiply and our friends will abandon us.

Inmates need to be charged and tried under the rule of law or released; exonerated inmates deserve our apology and recompense. Moreover, treatment leading to real healing is needed for all those who have suffered through this illegal and immoral enterprise, including guards and interrogators. And apparent war criminals of any nationality need to be held accountable through restorative justice. That is the way to real security. Failing that, we lose both our security and our identity.

Elea Mihou is the executive director of the Western New York Peace Center. Victoria Ross is the Center’s peaceful conflict resolution coordinator.