The Times' James Hider reports:
America’s high-security prisons in Iraq have become "terrorist academies" for the most dangerous militant groups, according to former inmates and Iraqi government officials.
Arrested Iraqis (the euphemism is "detainees") are brought into close contact with hardcore insurgents under conditions of extreme duress. More below...
Inmates are left largely to run their blocks, which are segregated on sectarian lines.
A perfect incubator for the next generation.
The article includes interviews with former "detainees" who were subjected to intense pressure. Those not "converting" were sometimes punished with death, sometimes by being accused of various infractions which resulted in their being locked up in punishment boxes like "the coffin," a 6' x 4' metal box. At least one member of the Iraqi government has complained at the situation that is being produced in these prisons.
In many ways, this is not surprising; it replicates many of the same developments that have occurred in US prisons since the "drug wars," and resulting dramatic rise in the levels of incarceration in this country, which has pushed the US to the top of the international charts.
You could pick up examples of this anywhere; here's an excerpt from a Mother Jone's article by Sasha Abramsky:
"Jail is whacked, man. Whacked," says Jason, who asked that his last name be withheld. "I picked up some violent shit in there. You're with people locked up for murder, gun charges. Eventually that shit's going to wear on you." While he was locked up, Jason says he saw a group of kids sodomize another inmate with a stick. He himself got slashed twice and stabbed in the back with a sharpened paper clip. Although Jason had never been convicted of a violent crime before, he retaliated by stabbing a rival gang member. As a result, he was sent to solitary confinement in Rikers' Central Punishment Segregation Unit, an area inmates call "the Bing."
Or (take your poison; this from Hider):
One night, Abu Usama recalled, a group of al-Qaeda enforcers, their faces masked by towels, murdered an inmate. "Six of them came, two guarding the door and four to kill him. One of them hit him on the head with a sock filled with rocks. They beat him to death."
This situation is a by-product of over-zealous sweep-ups of young Iraqi men, many of whom no doubt change from "insurgents" to insurgents during their time in these poorly run training schools.