Exclusive Tour of Iraqi Youth Detention Center
U.S. military tries to bring order to Iraq with special youth detention centers.
Sept. 6, 2007 — -- In a rare tour of an Iraqi detention center, ABC's Martha Raddatz took a look at a novel effort to reform the growing numbers of Iraqi children imprisoned for trying to help the insurgency.
The children, aged 11 to 17 years old, are accused of crimes ranging from theft to killing Iraqis or Americans.
"They've actually done more -- a wider a variety of things than the adults," said U.S. Marine Corps Cmdr. Doug Stone. "We have IED builders … have those that have been behind … parts of assassination groups."
There has been a huge increase in the number of juvenile detainees since the U.S. troop surge began earlier this year -- from 250 in May to 800 now -- as al Qaeda has been heavily recruiting the young, who are easy targets.
Many of the mostly Sunni youngsters are illiterate, impoverished and on their own.
But Stone, the new head of detention operations, and the Iraqi government are determined to win these children over.
Stone has started what is called a re-education program. Imams are brought in to try to convince young men that the Koran does not support violence, and Iraqi teachers provide a basic education that many at the facility never received.
One teacher said they can now "look for the better future for Iraq and themselves, for the family, and they want to build Iraq really," one teacher told ABC News.
Today, the Iraqi government even offered each of the young men a $100 savings account to get them started.
Detention centers in Iraq are still clouded by memories of the abuse at Abu Ghraib, and the changes are in part meant to purge that image. But Stone said the more important reason for reform is to cut off extreme ideology early.
"This is war fighting. This is how you cut the insurgency off at the knees," Stone said. "The kids are the future of the country."
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