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January 31, 2007
Iraqis Get Ideas From S.C. Prisons
Iraqis Get Ideas From S.C. Prisons
By MEG KINNARD
The Associated Press
Monday, January 29, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Iraqi prison officials looking to rebuild their nation's jail system toured a state prison Monday, gathering ideas _ including electronic door locks and an onsite license plate plant _ to take back to their country.
A delegation that included U.S. Justice Department officials and their Iraqi counterparts visited the maximum security Broad River Correctional Institution, where the Iraqis watched inmates make South Carolina license plates and traffic signs.
Iraqi prisoners don't have a place to work, one visitor said through an interpreter.
The plant enables an inmate "to help himself and his family. We can have productive inmates, not just consumer inmates," said the warden of a Nasiriyah prison, whose name was withheld by the Justice Department for his own safety.
The group also was interested in the prison's security system, which includes electronically locking doors and video monitoring.
"My first impression is that the prisons here are totally different from ours," the warden said. "For example, the security system, the electric doors _ we don't have this technology."
The delegation visited South Carolina because the state prison system was similar in size and organization to the existing Iraqi system, said Georgette Thornton, who works in Baghdad with the department's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program.
The two-week visit to South Carolina will include trips to other state prisons as well as a federal prison. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901 870.html
Posted by lois at January 31, 2007 04:42 PM