US releases 1,000 from Abu Ghraib

The US military announced it released approximately 1,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib on Sunday, in an effort to create good will in a time of growing political crisis in Iraq. The prisoners were accused of (many never found guilty of) non-violent crimes, and pledged to be "good citizens of a democractic Iraq." The release was made at the request of Iraqi authorities — who evidently should be in greater control of the correction system.

The question that is raised by this release is, how, administratively and legally can so many men be released at once? Why were they not released as they were found innocent? Was this an "amnesty" of sorts, where men convicted of non-violent crimes were released, or was it a special acceleration of the judicial "review" process in order to release those accused of non-violent crimes? If the latter is the case, shouldn't those accused of non-violent crimes benefit from some form of bail or parole system?