The Baghdad Central Prison, formerly known[1] as Abu Ghraib prison (Arabic: سجن أبو غريب Sijn Abu Ghuraib; also Abu Ghurayb, meaning 'father of the raven' or 'Place of Ravens'[2]) is in Abu Ghraib, an Iraqi city 32 km (20 mi) west of Baghdad. It was built by British contractors in the 1950s.
Observers estimated that in 2001, the prison held as many as 15,000 inmates.
In 2002 Saddam's government began an expansion project to add six new cellblocks to the prison.[3] In October 2002, Saddam Hussein gave amnesty to most prisoners in Iraq. After the prisoners were released and the prison was left empty, it was vandalized and looted. Almost all of the documents relating to prisoners were piled and burnt inside of prison offices and cells, leading to extensive structural damage. After years of shared use by United States-led forces and the Iraqi government beginning in 2003 after the Iraq Invasion, on September 2, 2006 the US transferred the prison to complete control of the Iraqis.
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Until August 2006, the site known as the Abu Ghraib prison was used for detention purposes by both the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq and the Iraqi government. Since then, the Iraqi government has controlled the area of the facility known as "The Hard Site". The prison is used to house only convicted criminals. Suspected criminals, insurgents or those arrested and awaiting trial are held at other facilities, commonly known as "camps" in U.S. military parlance.
The US houses all its detainees at "Camp Redemption", which is divided into five security levels. This camp built in the summer of 2004 replaced the three-level setup of Camp Ganci, Camp Vigilant and Abu Ghraib's Tier 1. The remainder of the facility was occupied by the United States military. In the recent past, Abu Ghraib served as both a FOB (Forward Operating Base) and a detention facility. When the US was using the Abu Ghraib prison as a detention facility, it housed approximately 7490 prisoners there in March 2004.[5]
The current population of detainees is much smaller, because Camp Redemption has a much smaller capacity than Camp Ganci had. Many detainees have been sent from Abu Ghraib to Camp Bucca for this reason. The US initially holds all "persons of interest" in Camp Redemption. Some are suspected rebels, and some suspected criminals. Those convicted by trial in Iraqi court are transferred to the Iraqi-run Hard Site.
Reserve soldiers from the 320th military police battalion were charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with prisoner abuse, beginning with an Army Criminal Investigation Division investigation on January 14, 2004.
In April 2004, U.S. television news-magazine 60 Minutes reported on a story from the magazine The New Yorker, which recounted US-sanctioned torture and humiliation of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers and contracted civilians. The story included photographs' depicting the abuse of prisoners. The events created a substantial political scandal within the US and other coalition countries. (For more information see Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.)
On April 20, 2004 insurgents fired forty (40) mortar rounds into the prison. Twenty-two detainees were killed and 92 wounded. Commentators thought the attack was either as an attempt to incite a riot or retribution for detainees' cooperating with the United States.[6]
In May 2004, the US-led coalition embarked on a prisoner-release policy to reduce numbers to fewer than 2000. Despite numerous large releases and transfers to Camp Bucca, this goal has yet to be obtained. There continue to be numerous incoming detainees.
In a May 24, 2004 address at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania, United States President George W. Bush announced that the prison would be demolished. On June 14 Iraqi interim President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer said he opposed this decision, followed by the ruling June 21 by U.S. military judge Col. James Pohl, who said that the prison was a crime scene and could not be demolished until investigations and trials were completed.
On April 2, 2005 the prison was attacked by 60 insurgents. In the two hours before being forced to retreat, the attackers suffered at least 50 casualties. (Both killed and injured; according to the US military.) The attackers used small arms, rockets, and RPG's as weapons, and threw grenades over the walls. A Vehicle Born IED (VBIED) detonated just outside the front wall after Marines fired on it. Officials believe that the car bomb was intended to breach the prison wall, enabling an assault and/or mass escape for detainees. Insurgents also attacked military forces nearby on highways in route to the prison for reinforcement. They used ambushes along the roads. Thirty-six persons at or in the prison, including Marines, soldiers, sailors, civilians and detainees, were injured in the attack. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for both of the strikes.[7]
During the week ending August 27, 2005, at the request of the Iraqi government, the US released nearly 1,000 detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison.[8] On December 4, 2005, Reuters reported that John Pace, human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), said, "Those held in Abu Ghraib prison were among an estimated 14,000 people imprisoned in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546."
All prisoners in Iraq except those held by the Ministry of Justice are, technically speaking, held against the law because the Ministry of Justice is the only authority that is empowered by [Iraqi] law to detain and hold anybody in prison.
In March 2006 the U.S. military decided to transfer the 4,500 inmates to other prisons and transfer control of the Abu Ghraib prison to Iraqi authorities.[10] The prison was reported emptied of prisoners in August 2006.[11] The formal transfer was made on September 2, 2006. The formal transfer was conducted between Major General Jack Gardner, Commander of Task Force 134, and representatives of the Iraqi Ministry of Justice and the Iraqi army.[12]
In February 2009 Iraq reopened Abu Ghraib under the new name of Baghdad Central Prison . It was designed to house 3,500 inmates. The government said it planned to increase the number up to 15,000 prisoners by the end of the year.[13]
