Supporting the Restoration of Civil Authority

A key requirement of military forces following major hostilities is to reestablish security. Lasting security can only be achieved with the restoration of civil authority, the reestablishment of the rule of law, and the institutions that uphold the rule of law. The three primary institutions that uphold the rule of law are the police, judiciary, and penal system. The author answers the question as to whether the Department of Defense (DoD) should develop the capability to not only conduct detention operations more proficiently, but also reestablish or improve a host nation's penal system as part of the broader restoration of civil authority? To restore a failed or failing penal system, the intervening force needs corrections (i.e., prison) specialists, managers, and engineers to deploy in a timely manner and who will expand prison capacity, conduct cadre recruitment and training, provide system oversight and safeguards to ensure adherence to international standards of confinement and corrections (i.e., monitoring and mentoring), and ensure the timely transition to the host nation government. Though such experts exist, they are not easily identified, recruited, and deployed to assume control from the intervening military force. The most recent performance of the United Nations in Afghanistan and the U.S. civilian agencies in Iraq demonstrated that even with the full effort of the U.S. Government, there is still a deployment gap between the introduction of U.S. military forces and follow on civilian agencies. Though military leaders and planners may feel that they get "stuck" with rebuilding a host nation's law enforcement and penal systems, doctrine recognizes the requirement, and the deployment gap with civilian police and prison advisors establishes the default need. It is up to the military to decide whether it will ignore the requirement, attempt to merely mitigate the requirement, or focus concerted effort on the penal system as an integral part of rebuilding t

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.