Al Itijah Al Akhar newspaper in an editorial criticized Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and the way it deals with the current situation in Iraq.
"Some countries announce they closed prisons in their countries, but Maliki feels proud building hundreds of new prisons from the north to the south," it said.
Thousands of prisoners are being suppressed in those prisons, the paper said.
"Tariq Al Hashimi, the vice president, visited one of the prisons in the east of Baghdad and sadly saw that 2,779 prisoners were put in cages, like the ones we see in the zoo," the editorial reported.
The visit ended with Hashimi's demanding that the prisoners be released if they are not guilty, or judged if they are convicted.
"One of the prisoners was shouting from the razor-wire cage … saying he had been arrested two years ago and that no judge or investigator had talked to him," the paper quoted Hashimi as saying.
He promised prisoners he would talk to officials and find a solution.
The Kul Al Iraq newspaper reported that a source from security forces in Kirkuk said 144 suspects were arrested during a security operation by the city police.
"The 144 were people who illegally entered the city; 27 of them were wanted," the paper said.
The paper also reported that a source from Nineveh police said six people were killed during an attack by an armed group on a checkpoint south of Mosul. Five of the six were policemen, the paper reported.
The attack took place Tuesday night in Mosul, the center of Nineveh province.
In another report, the paper interviewed Nassar al-Rubaee, from the Sadr bloc in Parliament, to comment on the events of last Tuesday and Wednesday when at least 50 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in clashes between security forces, a force loyal to Badr Brigade known as the SIIC militia and visitors to the Imam Hussain Shrine in Karbala. The clashes were followed by the burning of several SIIC offices in Baghdad and other cities by the Mahdi Army.
Al Rubaee blamed a third party for the violence, but did not name it. He also accused security forces in the city of Karbala of the violence in the last few days. "There is a third party who is trying to create a dispute between the Sadr movement and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council."
He also demanded that the security forces be independent.
Al Shabab newspaper reported that Vice President Traiq al Hashimi had said starting next Sunday, 50 innocent prisoners from U.S. prisons in Iraq will be released daily during the month of Ramadan.
The decision comes after the visit of Hashimi and his fellow vice president, Adil Abdul Mahdi, to prisons.
The Kurdish Al Ahali newspaper said Friday the U.S. army had discovered a secret prison in Khan Bani Saad district, in Diyala province.
"The prison was run by insurgents and was discovered when seven prisoners fled the prison and informed the security forces," the paper reported.
