'US has best prisons in world'
2005-06-05 22:10
Washington - Charges of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib notwithstanding, a top US Republican senator on Sunday took pride in the US prison system, calling it the best managed in the world.
"It's very difficult to run a perfect prison anywhere, but the United States does that better than any other country in the world," Senate Republican Majority Whip Mitch McConnell said during his appearance on CNN's Late Edition program.
The senator was responding to charges by Amnesty International that since the beginning of the war on terror, the United States has created a system reminiscent of Soviet "gulag" labour camps.
The United States runs the world largest prison system that houses more than 2.1 million inmates, according to the latest government statistics. That means that one in every 138 residents of the country is now behind bars.
- AFP