Prison abuse not exceptional?

All sorts of US government folk are expressing outrage at what has been happening in Iraqi prisons. “it’s un-American” “this does not express American values” etc. etc. But as Aaron McGruder suggests in his May 10th Boondocks, it might be business as usual, and all too American. Tony Norman makes the same point in an Op-Ed in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s time for us to stop ‘prison as retribution’ and begin to think through what restorative justice could really be. The Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota has a ton of useful resources on this issue. There is also useful info at the following: restorativejustice.com, restorative justice online, and even at the federal institute of justice site.