Because It Works So Well Here

Hope they didn't use the California format, we can see how well that is working out.

Reuters AlertNet - U.S. sets up new Iraqi prison system: "A Bush administration official, who asked not to be named, said around 70 U.S. "correctional experts" including prison wardens, managers and instructors, had been involved in getting the new Iraqi Correctional Service up and running.

The U.S. experts established a training academy for Iraqi guards and administrators near Baghdad in December 2004, and the first class graduated the following month.

'They have now graduated 4,029 Iraqi correctional officers, including 20 women who have undergone nine-week training courses,' the official said.

Hope they do better than the Iraqi military trainees.

One U.S. prison expert questioned whether the U.S. prison system offered the best model for Iraq to follow.

'I would have liked them to take a look at the practices of some of the European countries where they have an independent prison inspectorate, or Canada. The U.S. model is not exactly the best,' said Jenni Gainsborough of Penal Reform International, which promotes cooperation between governments and non-governmental organizations to promote good prisons.

The U.S. prison and jail system, with around 2.2 million inmates, accounts for a quarter of all the world's prisoners. Reports of violence, rape, abuse and medical neglect regularly emerge from the system.

The official said conditions at the Iraqi prisons were 'pretty basic.' The only recreational facilities most provided was a soccer field within the prison grounds.

'We're not into rehabilitation at this point. There are health and food services at all the prisons but we don't have educational programs or sophisticated counseling,' he said."

Load 'em up, move 'em out. Cattle to be herded into oblivion.

Update: Every time the administration opens its mouth, it lies or "misinforms".

To improve police skills, up to 3,000 U.S. and international personnel are being assigned to Iraqi police units throughout the country. In some of the more peaceful parts of Iraq, plans call for police rather than the Iraqi army to assume the lead role in ensuring security later this year.

That's no small task in a country where for decades the police were widely seen as brutal instruments of Saddam Hussein's tyranny.

Building a professional police force, which in Iraq is controlled by the Shiite-run Interior Ministry, has dogged the U.S. mission since the early months of the occupation in 2003.

Efforts to rush as many Iraqi police as possible into the streets, an early goal of occupation authorities, produced a force lacking in discipline and cohesion. Insurgents have found the poorly armed police a much easier target for attacks than the better-equipped Iraqi army or coalition troops.

In Basra and some other cities, local police are believed infiltrated by militia and criminal organizations. In November 2004, the entire 5,000-member police force in Mosul deserted in the face of an insurgent offensive launched to take pressure off extremists under siege by American troops in Fallujah.

Furthermore, police special commandoes, who are at the forefront of the fight against Sunni insurgents, have been accused by Sunni Arabs of kidnapping, torturing and killing Sunni Arab civilians in counterinsurgency operations, worsening sectarian tensions.

3000 is a vastly diffferent number than 70. Why does this administration keep setting both countries up for failure? They talk a big game, make it look good for the cameras, but it is just lipstick on a pig. A very ugly pig.

Tags: Iraq prison, correctional experts,