Judicial ‘green zone’
American troops have spent months trying to improve the physical security and the judicial proceedings at Sarposa. During the June 2008 attack, a car bomb exploded along the perimeter wall, killing several people and allowing an exodus from the prison. The hole in the wall has been patched, and layers of new barriers were constructed.
Since the fall, workers have have been building a “rule of law” complex adjacent to the prison, intended as a gathering place for prosecutors and judges to conduct investigations and trials. The goal has been to establish a secure environment for Afghanistan’s fledgling legal system to take root — and provide a legitimate alternative to the swift if brutal form of justice meted out by the Taliban.
The U.S. military’s Task Force 435, which oversees detainee issues, has two advisers at the site, along with about 40 U.S. soldiers from a military police battalion. The State Department’s bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs has been planning to fund 45 advisers to work at the prison compound.
When completed, the complex, sometimes referred to as a judicial “green zone,” would have dorm rooms for guards, so they do not have to risk sleeping at home. There are also plans to rehabilitate the prison facilities and begin vocational training classes.
On a tour of construction at the prison in February, Lt. Col. John Voorhees, the battalion commander, said, “We’re trying to make the government the best alternative, in the right way.”
“This is the future,” he said.
Under Mayar, the prison director, authorities have sought to find contraband such as cellphones that insurgents have used to plan attacks in the past. Afghan officials said they did not know whether the prisoners had been able to coordinate the escape with those outside or whether any prison guards were complicit.
Hamdard is a special correspondent. Staff writer Rajiv Chandrasekaran contributed to this report from Washington.
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