Iraq 'Supermax' Prisons Won't Wipe Away Abu Ghraib Stain

[via AlterNet] “In his five-point plan for Iraq reconstruction [so-called], President Bush touted his plan to build a modern maximum-security prison in Iraq as one way to wipe away the horrid stain of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The irony is that the type of maximum-security prison Bush wants to build has come under fierce assault from prison reformers, lawmakers and even some prison officials in the United States. These prisons, popularly known as a supermax prisons, have been the target of prisoner lawsuits in Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, and Illinois. In 2000, the Justice Department brought federal charges against prison guards for shooting inmates at Pelican Bay, California's supermax prison.

“Supermaxes have been called by the prisoners, 'torture chambers,' where they are subjected to flagrant human rights and civil liberties violations, and appalling psychological and physical abuses.”