The Obama Administration is planning a significant overhaul of the US-run prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and reforms of the entire Afghan jail network, as concern grows that they have become breeding grounds for Islamic militants.

The 600 detainees at Bagram have few privileges and almost no access to lawyers or human rights groups, and for the past fortnight have refused to leave their cells because of the indefinite detention.

In its early days, interrogation methods were abusive, and in 2002 two Afghans died after being beaten by US soldiers. The jail has in many respects become, for Afghans, a symbol of US abuse and excess similar to the reputation of Guantánamo or the former jail at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

According to The New York Times, Marine Major Douglas M. Stone, who helped to improve detention facilities in Iraq, has conducted a review of Afghan jails and recommended separating Taleban militants from the general prison population. He believes that many small-time criminals are being converted into extremists and join the Taleban on their release.

Under the plans, the US would help to fund and build a new high-security prison for dangerous militants. More moderate prisoners would be taught skills to help to integrate them back into society.

A plan that pre-dated General Stone’s reform is the scheduled opening this Autumn of a newly built replacement for the Bagram jail, with clean and more humane facilities. At present, many inmates are still held together in big cages.

Part of the motive for the review came from fears that the Afghan prison network will be overwhelmed by new detainees rounded up amid the recently launched offensive in southern Afghanistan aimed at defeating the increasingly lethal insurgency there.

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