The job facing Lane McCotter and Gary DeLand seemed nearly impossible: Completely rebuild Iraq's prison system starting from scratch, and do it fast.

But not only did the former Utah Department of Corrections heads and a team of advisers rebuild the prisons, recruit and train new corrections officers and get the police department up and running again, they did it all in four months. Both McCotter and DeLand told their stories of what happened in Iraq during Monday's Doug Wright Show on KSL 1160.

McCotter is the former head of the Utah Department of Corrections. He has also run prisons in Texas and New Mexico and has a military background. DeLand is a past executive director of Utah's Corrections Department.

In April, McCotter was asked to join a team of judges, attorneys and other advisers to go to Iraq to help rebuild the country's justice system, including the police, courts and prisons. McCotter asked DeLand to be on his team of advisers, and for the next four months the two worked to not only rebuild structures that had been destroyed in the war but to change the mind-sets of everyone who had worked under Saddam Hussein's regime of terror.

When the group of U.S. advisers arrived in May, they had virtually nothing to work with. Just as Saddam was leaving town he pardoned more than 100,000 prisoners and set them free, McCotter said. In addition, all the prison system's records were destroyed.

Developing a system from scratch, McCotter and DeLand came up with applications and a way to screen and hire officers. After corrections workers were hired they had to be trained, which included changing old ways of thinking, meaning no more torturing prisoners and no more taking bribes, DeLand said.

"Every prison in Iraq had a torture chamber of some kind (in the old days)," DeLand said.

The enthusiasm of the Iraqi people to get the justice system up and running again was tremendous, according to McCotter and DeLand.

By the time the two left Iraq there were five prisons operating. In Baghdad, two of the city's major courts were functioning again by the time they left.

"The system is starting to come back to life. Police stations are now up and running," McCotter said. "When we first went over in May, it was a ghost town. The country has come back to life in four months."

Plans are in the works to train an additional 35,000 Iraqi police officers to bring order to all the cities in the country, McCotter said. That training will show the Iraqis proper police techniques, including knowing the rights of citizens, he said.

Despite the great progress that has been made, both McCotter and DeLand said they are extremely "annoyed and frustrated" by the mainstream media painting such a negative picture and ignoring the accomplishments the military and others have made.

"We have to have patience, because the right things are being done. Electricity and water are up to levels better than they were before the war," DeLand said.

McCotter added that Americans need to continue supporting the troops and remember not to take their freedoms for granted.

---

E-MAIL: preavy@desnews.com