Wrong: Abu Ghraib and similar pilings of naked Iraqi prisoners photographed by American troops

You missed this..

Tortured screams ring out as Iraqis take over Abu Ghraib

Some of the small number of prisoners who remained in the jail after the Americans left said they had pleaded to go with their departing captors, rather than be left in the hands of Iraqi guards.

\"The Americans were better than the Iraqis. They treated us better,\" said Khalid Alaani, who was held on suspicion of involvement in Sunni terrorism.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/10/wirq10.xml

hmmm... I wonder why ? Stockholm syndrome ? Naaah...

I don't understand your point. Are you arguing that American administration of the prison is better than Iraqi administration of the prison? If so, that hardly seems relevant.

In any case, *my* point was the absurdity of an administration like this giving anyone lessons in moral clarity when it comes to observing the rights and welfare of people who are imprisoned.

Ok, I\'ll bite... which country in *your* opinion can give us a a shining example of a system where there has been a true and honest observation of prisoners\' rights ? The Chinese ? They are well on their way to dethroning the US as the next superpower in 20 years, as this country is well on its way of economic decline. I would love to see the Chinese model for the \"new world order\" and respect for individual rights. And *my* point about Abu Ghraib was that the US is certainly no saint but the prisoners there are hardly being treated with kid gloves by their own people. Or is \"Iraqi on Iraqi\" violence acceptable compared to the lesser evil of the American administration ?

I can't believe you're seriously going to try to mitigate U.S. actions in Abu Ghraib, a situation that was not just literally horrible but also took on symbolic presence in the U.S. as an example of U.S. abuses and folly in Iraq.

Moreover, your anaylsis is really simplistic. You base your argument on the idea that the U.S. bears no responsibility for the conditions of Iraqi prisoners (whom the army captured and held and in some/many cases tortured) or the conduct of Iraqi guards (whom they presumably trained) who take over U.S. prisons (which the U.S. presumably estbalished and maintained and set the tone for). This situation is more like rendition than a government imprisoning people within its territory (though it has elements of both).

Further, even if I accepted that there was no worldwide hierarchy of power (or, in this case, even more clearly, an occupation of Iraq by the United States!) that heavily influences how things work in prisons, if you legitimately believe that there are no fair prison systems, why isn't your answer to reject prison systems? This was why I grudingly used the word "acceptable" rather than "right" in contrast to wrong. And even "acceptable" is a stretch--but it was a grant that in the current situation an active attempt to water down the norms of how prisoners should be treated should be combatted and a global critique of prison systems is a second step (for me).

In conclusion, from wikipedia:

As of 2004, the incarceration rate in prison and jail, in the United States was 724 inmates per 100,000. [1]. For the most part, the U.S. rate is three to eight times that of the Western European nations and Canada. The rate in England and Wales, for example, is 139 persons imprisoned per 100,000 residents while in Norway it is 59 per 100,000. In many countries, it is common for prisoners to be paroled after serving as little as one third of their sentences. In the US most states strictly limit parole, requiring at least half of the sentence to be served, and for certain heinous crimes, there is no parole and the sentence must be served in full.

The prison population in China was 111 per 100,000 in 2001 (sentenced prisoners only), although this figure is highly disputed. Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in forced-labor camps for criticizing the government, estimates that 16 to 20 million of his countrymen are incarcerated, including common criminals, political prisoners, and people in involuntary job placements. Even ten million prisoners would mean a rate of 793 per 100,000.
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Conditions of imprisonment

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch raised concerns with prisoner rape and medical care for inmates. [8] In a survey of 1,788 male inmates in midwestern prisons by Prison Journal, about 21% claimed they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration and 7% claimed that they had been raped in their current facility.[9]

In August 2003 a Harper's article by Wil S. Hylton estimated that "somewhere between 20 and 40 % of American prisoners are, at this very moment, infected with hepatitis C". Prisons may outsource medical care to private companies such as Correctional Medical Services, which, according to Hylton's research, try to minimize the amount of care given to prisoners in order to maximize profits.

Gang violence has also been identified as an issue within the prison system, as many gang members retain their affiliations when imprisoned. Identified gang members are often segregated from the general population of inmates, with different gangs being housed in separate units with the result that these gang members are imprisoned with their friends and criminal cohorts. However, some feel this has the effect of turning prisons into "institutions of higher criminal learning". [10]

Privatization

In recent years, there has been much debate over the privatization of prisons. The argument for privatization stresses cost reduction, whereas the arguments against it focus on standards of care, and the question of whether a market economy for prisons might not also lead to a market demand for prisoners (ie. tougher sentencing for cheap labor). While privatized prisons have only a short history, there is a long tradition of inmates in state and federal-run prisons undertaking active employment in prison for low pay.

Private companies which provide services to prisons combine in the American Correctional Association, which advocates legislation favorable to the industry, could lead to imprisoning more individuals.
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Criticism

The United States spends an estimated $60 billion [11] each year on corrections. The population of inmates housed in prisons and jails in the United States exceeds 2 million, with the per capita incarceration population higher than any other country. Criminal justice policy in the United States has also been criticized for the disproportionate representation of African-Americans and other minorities. [11]