Surge in Iraqi prison population, $50 mil needed

The US appears to be acknowledging that it can not permanently operate its prisons at "surge capacity." Since January of this year, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of US detainees in Iraq, surpassing 11,350 last week. The US announced it would be spending more to reinforce the prison system, and to deal with this increase in the population of detainees. With this announcement came interesting "profiling" information of detainees and more detail on the legal review process for detainees. Read the Washington Post story for more detail.

...[The] process... includes a review board staffed by six Iraqis and three members of the U.S.-led multinational force. As of last week, [Pentagon spokesman Brandenburg] said, the board had looked at 10,000 cases and approved the release of about 6,000 people.

But Brandenburg acknowledged that the prisons were filling up faster than cases could be reviewed. "We're still getting more detainees in than we're getting rid of," he said.

A second review board is being established this week to relieve some of the strain on the reviewers, who are facing a heavier workload. Together, the two boards should be able to handle 650 to 700 reviews a week, Brandenburg said. Iraq's Central Criminal Court, created a year ago, has also picked up its pace. It handled 87 trials and 50 pretrial investigative hearings in March.

Various indicators, however, point to a detainee population that is increasingly hard-core and therefore likely to remain locked up. Before January, for instance, the review board had ordered releases in about 60 percent of the cases it considered. In recent months, the figure has dropped to 40 percent.

Similarly, since January, 88 percent of those detained have been rated "high risk" under a six-point system that takes into account the circumstances of capture, severity of the alleged offense and affiliation with known insurgent groups.

Other profiling information provided by Brandenburg shows that 96 percent of those in the detention camps are Iraqis and about 60 percent are either from Baghdad or Anbar provinces - two areas where much of the insurgency has been concentrated. Only five detainees are female. Nearly three-fourths of the inmate population is between the ages of 20 and 40, and about 60 percent of the detainees have less than a high school education.