Detention system reform is a top priority

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More than 1,700 Iraqi correctional officers work at Camp Cropper and the largest detainee facility in Iraq, Camp Bucca.


Detention system reform is a top priority
By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, September 14, 2008

BAGHDAD - The young Iraqi boy’s drawings are taped proudly to the trailer wall.

They range from typical childhood fantasies to stark reality: robust ships, mountain scenes, a castle, home.

Then: A blank face looming in a hole smashed through a brick wall. A boy gripping the bars of a cage labeled "seg box," his back to the viewer.

The drawings are signed "Bicaso," a bastardized spelling of the artistic nickname American soldiers have given him. They are also signed with the boy’s detainee identification number. He is one of some 380 youths between 11 and 17 held by U.S. troops in Iraq.

The drawings symbolize the struggles of a detention system seeking to erase the stain of Abu Ghraib. While trying to reform with educational, arts, vocational and religious programs, the U.S. detention system in Iraq still faces questions about due process, juvenile detainees and human rights.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57392