First Trials Begin of Detainees Held in U.S. Prisons

PARWAN DETENTION FACILITY, Afghanistan June 8, 2010— -- In a room with florescent lights and cheap Chinese furniture the United States turned a page on its controversial detention policy today, facilitating the first trial of detainees held in an American detention facility.

The United States has long been dogged by allegations of mistreatment and indefinite detention inside its prisons in Afghanistan, and today's hearing was part of a massive effort to transition control of detention over to the Afghan government.

The trial was held inside the new $60 million Parwan Detention Facility, designed to improve conditions in the largest American prison and present a kinder face on one of the most contentious aspects of the American presence in Afghanistan.

Afghan judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys ran the trial, which concluded with the conviction of two brothers for making roadside bombs and the acquittals of a third brother and their father.

The trials are twinned with new efforts to reconcile hundreds of Afghan prisoners back into mainstream society. More than 100 detainees have been released from the Parwan facility and handed over to elders in their communities, and American officials are expanding new programs that teach detainees literacy and job skills.

American officials see the trials, the improved prison and the reintegration efforts as a way to remove what has been a powerful insurgent recruiting tool.

"The perception in the past has unfortunately been toxic. A lot of Afghans haven't trusted the U.S. detention system. There's been a perception that it's been unfair. There's been a perception that people have been abused. And those perceptions have fueled [the] insurgency," says Michael Gottlieb, the senior civilian representative in Joint Task Force 435, which oversees detention.

"Increasing Afghan control over this process is something that increases the legitimacy of the Afghan government, something that hands the process back to the people and it shows them that there's not arbitrariness, that the process is fair, transparent," Gottlieb said.