Antonio ponverts traces the prison abuse scandal back to Connecticut, and the shameful conditions under which prisoners are kept in this country: In May 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft hand-picked a small group of former prison officials to re-make the Iraqi prison system. Many of those chosen, including former Connecticut Department of Correction Commissioner John Armstrong, left their state jobs under a cloud of scandals involving inmate deaths, brutality and unconstitutional practices. All of the men chosen hold extreme correctional philosophies that are in stark contrast to modern concepts of humane and dignified treatment. Armstrong, who left state office in March 2003 in the wake of a scandal involving the sexual harassment of female guards by male guards, presided over a department whose staff members were responsible for the fatal restraint of at least two mentally ill inmates, the use of unconstitutional and excessive force against others, and a code of silence that allowed and encouraged a culture of brutality and degradation. Notwithstanding the DOC's internal findings of misconduct in the most notorious cases, Armstrong imposed no meaningful discipline and required no re-training of officers involved. In calling recently for an investigation into Armstrong's service in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Charles Shumer (D-NY) reminded us of Armstrong's ill-fated decision to transfer Connecticut inmates to Virginia, where some of them died and others were abused. While Armstrong was not directly responsible for conditions in the Virginia prison, he knew about them and he did nothing to transfer our inmates out of that abusive system until a neutral government investigation threatened to uncover it. Since August 2003, Armstrong has been the Assistant Director of Operations in Iraq.