They were overcrowded before the surge. Gee, no wonder they say things are better. They’ve walled off neighborhoods, keeping Shiites in one area, Sunnis in another. Millions have fled the country. And thousands are now in prisons. Great job! What a plan!!

The American troop increase in Iraq over the past year has been accompanied by waves of new Iraqi detainees, inundating the country’s already overburdened prisons and courts, according to embassy officials speaking on Wednesday.

American advisers say that Iraq’s nascent justice system does not have enough prison beds, investigative judges, lawyers or adequate facilities to absorb the thousands of suspects that have been detained since last summer by augmented American and Iraqi security forces. More than half of about 26,000 prisoners are still awaiting trial, and some have languished in custody for years, American officials said.

The Iraqi legislature on Wednesday approved a new amnesty law that could free thousands of Iraqi prisoners. The releases might alleviate some pressure on the system. But American officials warned that Iraq’s Justice Ministry will still require tens of thousands of new prison beds to consolidate detainees being held by throughout the country by various agencies, including the police and army. The ministry will also have to receive many of the 24,000 additional prisoners being held in separate American military prisons like Camp Bucca in southern Iraq and Abu Ghraib, north of Baghdad.

More at the New York Times

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