Iraq’s overcrowded, backed-up prison system
U.S. soldiers in May carry shotguns as they walk along a corridor separating what they deem to be the most extreme and dangerous detainees inside the Camp Bucca detention center near the Iraq- Kuwait border. The US military in
Many Iraqi prisoners languish without charges or trial in backed up justice system
A guard watches over detainees in Baghdad’s Rusafa detention center as they wait in a holding cage to visit lawyers provided by a free legal clinic funded by the U.S. in an effort to clear the backlog of prisoners caught in the system. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
Iraqi detainees walk in a courtyard inside the Camp Bucca detention centrelocated near the Kuwait-Iraq border, on May 19, 2008. Critics of Iraq’s justice system say thousands of men have languished for years without legal representation or charges being filed and that an amnesty law passed in February is not working as it should. (David Furst / AFP/Getty Images)
A US Army soldier salutes Iraqi detainees holding an Iraqi flag and singing the Iraqi national anthem after the soldier prompted them to do so, inside the Camp Bucca detention centre. The US military said on September 5, 2008 it plans to free 3,000 detainees held in Iraq during the Muslim holy month of
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An Iraqi man stands in a holding cage waiting to see a lawyer at a Baghdad detention facility. An Iraqi man stands in a holding cage waiting to see a lawyer at a Baghdad detention facility. Kareem Swadi Lami, a former cop and longtime attorney who heads the free legal clinic estimates that about half the roughly 6,500 men in the Rusafa complex have been held at least three years. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
A guard shuts the gate of a holding cage for Iraqi detainees at a Baghdad detention facility. The men are waiting to see lawyers with the new free legal aid clinic being funded by the U.S. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
Detainees ordered to be freed wait in line to receive clothing, some money and their belongings before leaving a Baghdad detention facility. Since an amnesty law was passed in February, 5062 cases have been submitted for consideration and 1,420 Rusafa inmates have been freed. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
Dawud Yusif, 45, clutches a $20 bill given to him by prison officials and grabs some donated clothes to wear before being released from a Baghdad detention facility in August. Yusif said he was held more than a year without knowing what he was charged with. Many say they confessed to crimes they hadn’t committed after beatings by interrogators and police. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
