BEING LIKE THE PURITAN NATION REQUIRES A HECK OF A LOT OF PRISON SPACE:

New Detainees Strain Iraq's Jails: Sharp Rise Follows Start of Security Plan; Suspects Housed With Convicts (Joshua Partlow, May 15, 2007, Washington Post)

The capture of thousands of new suspects under the three-month-old Baghdad security plan has overwhelmed the Iraqi government's detention system, forcing hundreds of people into overcrowded facilities, according to Iraqi and Western officials.

Nearly 20,000 people were in Iraqi-run prisons, detention camps, police stations and other holding cells as of the end of March, according to a U.N. report issued last month, an increase of more than 3,500 from the end of January. The U.S. military said late last week that it was holding about 19,500 detainees, up more than 3,000 since the U.S. and Iraqi governments began implementing the security plan in mid-February.

Building and staffing the number of prisons they'll require to put down the Sunni should provide plenty of good jobs.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 15, 2007 7:54 AM