Closing the Iraqi Big House

San Quentin, you've been livin' hell to me
You've hosted me since nineteen sixty three
I've seen 'em come and go and I've seen them die
And long ago I stopped askin' why

San Quentin, I hate every inch of you.
You've cut me and have scarred me thru an' thru.
And I'll walk out a wiser weaker man;
Mister Congressman why can't you understand.

San Quentin, what good do you think you do?
Do you think I'll be different when you're through?
You bent my heart and mind and you may my soul,
And your stone walls turn my blood a little cold.

---Johnny Cash, San Quentin.

As bad as San Quentin ever was, Abu Ghraib during Saddam's regime was many times worse. Yet, when American forces took control of the prison after Saddam's ouster in 2003, some American troops dishonored their uniforms, their service, and their country by abusing detainees at the facility. This scandal occupied the front pages of major media outlets for months, which couldn't stop finding new and interesting ways of weaving the story - and photos - into copy on Iraq.

Abu Ghraib soon became known more for the abuses by those few American troops than for the decades of death, torture, and pain inflicted there by Saddam's Ba'athist regime.

So, the American plan to close the facility permanently comes none too soon. It is long overdue. The facility will be turned over the Iraqis:

"We will transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once construction is completed there," Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry told Reuters.

"No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this within the next two to three months," said Curry, the spokesman for U.S. detention operations in Iraq.

Camp Cropper is a detention facility in the U.S. military headquarters base at Baghdad airport, not far from Abu Ghraib.

It currently houses only 127 "high-value" detainees, among them Saddam himself. U.S. military officials say a purpose-built prison at Camp Cropper will provide better conditions for Iraqis detained on suspicion of insurgent activity.

The buildings at Abu Ghraib, including the original brick- built jail and surrounding tented camp that has sprung up under U.S. control, will be handed over to the Iraqi government.

Further, the Washington Post would like you to think that only a few low ranking officers were prosecuted and convicted. Via Wikipedia:

The Department of Defense removed seventeen soldiers and officers from duty, and seven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault, and battery. Between May 2004 and September 2005, seven soldiers were convicted in courts martial, sentenced to federal prison time, and dishonorably discharged from service. Two soldiers, Specialist Charles Graner, and his former fiancée, Pvt. Lynndie England, were sentenced to ten years and three years in prison, respectively, in trials ending on January 14, 2005 and September 26, 2005. The commanding officer at the prison, Brig. General Janis Karpinski [emphasis mine], was demoted to the rank of colonel on May 5, 2005.

UPDATE:
The New York Times is reporting that the closure and transfer should take place within three months.