BAGHDAD, March 13 (UPI) -- A top U.S. military commander in charge of detainee affairs said a new approach for handling Iraqi prisoners is paying off with intelligence and reconciliation.
Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone outlined several principles for handling detainees at U.S.-led facilities that have led to decreased violence from those released, more intelligence and better methods for vetting violent criminals, the American Forces Press Service said.
Stone said prison officials and U.S. personnel used a tactic of creating alliances with some of the more moderate prisoners to get an early release provided they demonstrate the willingness to shun violence.
Moderate prisoners would be separated from the more violent extremists entering the prison population in order to provide a foundation for the reconciliation process by taking each case into consideration on an individual basis.
"Then we begin to work with both sides of that population -- extremists and the more moderate -- to defeat any insurgency that was going on inside the theater detention facility," Stone said.
Stone also noted prisons began offering voluntary literacy and education programs and opened the facilities to allow 1,600 family visitations every week.
The number of detainees engaging in violent confrontations with other detainees and prison officials is down and slightly less than 9 percent of those detainees released are recaptured and incarcerated, Stone said.
