President Obama will also use his speech today to outline new efforts to close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay. Obama is reportedly preparing to gradually lift his more than three-year ban on repatriating Yemeni prisoners. The Yemeni transfers will likely begin at a slow pace of around two or three prisoners at a time. More than half Guantánamo Bay’s 166 prisoners have been cleared for release, including 56 from Yemen. More than 100 are currently on a hunger strike at Guantánamo to protest their indefinite imprisonment. In a letter to the Pentagon, a group of lawyers for Guantánamo prisoners pleaded for improved conditions at the prison, writing: “While the hunger strike continues to increase in scope and severity, there is much you can do, right now, to improve the quality of life for all the prisoners.”