From a cell for the youth, a young man
tries to have a word with an Iraqi police officer at the Karbala Police
Station, which houses the city jail in Karbala, Iraq.
Before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the jail
that housed only 20 inmates was in horrible condition with human feces spread
on most of the cell walls. After the fall of the regime and the
implementation of particular standards by the US military, the jail has 287
inmates, swamp coolers and lights have been installed, and the plumbing
system has been fixed. The system remains particularly unfair to women, who
sometimes sit in jail for months for minor offenses like quarrelling with men
too close to a mosque.
