Abu Ghraib is a city in Iraq known for its prison, which was notorious for torture and abuse under Saddam Hussein’s regime. After the US military took over, a scandal broke out in 2004, leading to reforms and eventual transfer of control to the Iraqi government in 2006. Human rights activists remained concerned about conditions at the prison.
Abu Ghraib is a city in Iraq located west of Baghdad. The city also lends its name to a prison and many people think of prison when they hear the term ‘Abu Ghraib’. The prison was a notorious place under Saddam Hussein’s control, and it was also the site of a prisoner abuse scandal at the hands of the American occupation forces. Since August 2006, the prison has been controlled by the Iraqi government.
The prison complex was built in the 1960s and is spread over 280 acres (1.15 square kilometers) of land. Five separate compounds are enclosed within the Abu Ghraib prison, along with supporting structures that transform the prison into its own small city. Under Hussein’s administration, the prison was used to house political dissidents and reports indicate that prisoners were tortured and killed at the site; at least two mass graves are associated with the Abu Ghraib prison, and there may be more.
When US forces invaded Iraq in 2003, they took over administration of the prison, renaming it the Baghdad Central Confinement Facility (BCCF) and renovating some areas of the prison to meet US military standards. In 2004, various American media outlets spread stories of severe abuse and torture of prisoners; the Abu Ghraib scandal attracted great public attention and shook public confidence in the war.
Compared to the abuses under Hussein’s regime, the acts of torture committed by the US military were relatively tame, but horrific nonetheless. Prisoners were deprived of sleep, subjected to immense emotional stress, and humiliated. Photographs of the abuses in the prison were leaked to the American press; one of the most enduring images is a photograph of Satar Jabar, a prisoner who was hooded and forced to stand on a box while attached to wires that may or may not have been electrified.
After reports of the abuses at Abu Ghraib reached the public, the US military reformed prison conditions and issued new operational orders for personnel at containment facilities across Iraq. However, human rights activists remained concerned about conditions at the prison, where prisoners were held incommunicado for months or years without proof of their guilt. In March 2006, the US military agreed to relinquish control of the prison, which was emptied and transferred to the care of the Iraqi government.
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