In an extensive report released Thursday, the Human Rights Watch revealed that Iraqi security forces are systemically abusing imprisoned Iraqi women.

The HRW did their homework on this one: they interviewed many imprisoned women, their families, lawyers and medical providers, looked at court documents and met with high-level Iraqi authorities. And the conclusions they've come to are horrifying.

According to the HRW, the Shiite led government is illegally arresting women, usually in an attempt to suss out the alleged terrorist activities of their male family members. The majority of these women are Sunnis, who the government believes could be connected to Al Qaeda, though the HRW says women of all walks of life have been affected. After they're arrested, the women are often sexually assaulted, sometimes in front of their family members. They have been beaten, electrically shocked or burned with cigarettes. They are not allowed lawyers and are forced into signing documents they cannot read. If and when they do make it to court in front of a judge, that judge will rule against them unfairly, unless they are bribed to release the prisoner. Sometimes they're declared free to go by the courts and kept in prison anyway. One woman's child was kept in prison for seven weeks after she had been executed.

These stories are not new; the Human Rights Watch has been extensively investigating the treatment of detained Iraqi citizens since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government. Despite ample media coverage and protests, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's announcement a year ago that the government would be reforming the justice system, HRW says the corruption remains.