U.S. builds new Afghan prison

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. officials say they are building a new detention center in Afghanistan that will address human rights complaints.

Construction is under way at the new facility, which will house as many as 1,100 detainees and replace a makeshift prison at the U.S. Bagram airbase, 50 miles north of Kabul, which has been in use since 2002, The Christian Science Monitor reported Wednesday.

U.S. officials say the new facility will compare to successful new detention facilities in Iraq at Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper.

"We think it's really going to build on our best practices and lessons learned from our operations in Iraq, but recognizing that it needs to be tailored to the local Afghan population," said Sandra Hodgkinson, who oversees detention policies for the Pentagon.

"The conditions (in Afghan detention centers) were brutal," said one defense official, speaking anonymously. "They were doing a warehouse operation."