1.This Act may be cited as the
Foreign Prison Conditions Improvement
Act of 2010
.
2.Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)Millions of
incarcerated people in the world suffer inhumane conditions in prisons and
other detention facilities that are overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe to the
point of endangering their lives.
(2)According to a
2009 International Centre for Prison Studies report, there are an estimated
9,800,000 people held in penal institutions in the world, with prison
populations increasing in 71 percent of the over 200 countries surveyed.
(3)Rates of
malnutrition, disease, and death among prisoners and other detainees far exceed
those of the general population, and medical treatment for serious illness or
injury is, in many instances, non-existent or grossly inadequate.
(4)These conditions
are compounded by severe overcrowding in prisons and other detention
facilities. Excessive pre-trial detention and dysfunctional justice systems
frequently result in prisoners and other detainees spending years in such
conditions before their cases are adjudicated. In some countries, such
facilities are filled to capacity many times over resulting in conditions so
cramped that individual prisoners cannot move without all doing so en
masse.
(5)Amnesty
International’s 2009 State of the World’s Human Rights Report documented
widespread inhumane prison conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate food
and water, no access to hygiene products or medical care, juveniles detained
with adults, and denial of visits from family.
(6)Some governments
fail to provide even the most rudimentary sanitation in prisons and other
detention facilities, putting prisoners and other detainees at even greater
risk of easily preventable and often life-threatening diseases. Toilets are few
or non-existent and human waste repositories often are located among the
general prison population, forcing prisoners to eat, sleep, and live in grossly
unsanitary conditions.
(7)According to a
2009 report by the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Commission on
Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, former prisoners are likely to spread
diseases contracted in prison to the local population.
(8)Some governments
fail to permit prisoners and other detainees reasonable exercise of religious
worship or contact with family members or other visitors.
(9)According to the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2009 Annual
Report, religious prisoners have been confined to overcrowded cells, exposed to
extreme temperature fluctuations, denied adequate food and medical care, and
denied access to clergy and religious literature.
(10)Inhumane
conditions in prisons and other detention facilities often exist in countries
where resources for law enforcement are limited and only a small fraction of
such resources are made available for the operation and maintenance of prisons
and other detention facilities. Inadequate, misplaced, or lost prison records
often result in prisoners and detainees being incarcerated indefinitely because
of never being tried or otherwise adjudicated, and being held long after their
sentences have expired thereby further swelling prison populations. Allocating
the relatively modest resources necessary to provide for the basic human needs
of prisoners and other detainees and to remediate the inhumane conditions under
which such prisoners are held is often a low priority.
(11)The United States
Government currently provides significant amounts of assistance to countries
whose governments operate prisons and other detention facilities that, because
of their inhumane conditions, seriously jeopardize the lives of prisoners and
other detainees held under their authority.
(12)The Department of
State's 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices reported prison
conditions as poor, inhumane, or life threatening in more than 100 countries,
all of which receive United States assistance.
(13)The United States
Government should use its influence and resources to help ensure that
governments that receive United States assistance do not operate prisons and
other detention facilities under inhumane conditions. The United States
Government also should assist countries that are making significant efforts to
eliminate inhumane conditions in prisons and other detention facilities.
(14)Eliminating
inhumane conditions in foreign prisons and other detention facilities will
strengthen the rule of law, save lives, and enhance the health and well-being
of vulnerable people in poor countries, and it will advance United States
interests.
3.In this Act:
(1)Appropriate
congressional committeesThe term appropriate congressional
committees means—
(A)the Committee on
Appropriations and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
(B)the Committee on
Appropriations and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives.
(2)Minimum
standards for the elimination of inhumane conditions in foreign prisons and
other detention facilitiesThe term minimum standards for
the elimination of inhumane conditions in prisons and other detention
facilities means, with respect to the operation or maintenance of
prisons and other detention facilities in a foreign country that is a recipient
of United States assistance, the following:
(A)The number of
inmates or detainees held in a facility does not so exceed prison capacity such
that per capita floor space is insufficient to allow for humane sleeping
conditions and reasonable physical movement.
(B)Human waste
facilities are sanitary and accessible, and human waste is disposed of
regularly and in a sanitary manner.
(C)The lighting,
ventilation, temperature, and physical construction of prisons and other
detention facilities do not seriously endanger the health and safety of
prisoners.
(D)Prisoners and
other detainees have access to adequate food and potable drinking water.
(E)Prisoners and
other detainees have access to essential and emergency medical care.
(F)To the maximum
extent practicable, prisoners and other detainees are allowed religious
observance and materials, and contact with clergy, family, and friends, by both
correspondence and personal visits.
(3)The term United States assistance means
any non-humanitarian assistance furnished to carry out the provisions of the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), the Arms Export
Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.), or the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003
(22 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.).
4.Actions to help
eliminate inhumane conditions in foreign prisons and other detention
facilities
(a)Annual report to
Congress
(1)Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report describing the conditions in
prisons and other detention facilities in countries receiving United States
assistance. The report shall include a list of those countries, if any,
receiving United States assistance, whose governments—
(A)do not meet
minimum standards for the elimination of inhumane conditions in prisons and
other detention facilities but are making significant efforts to comply;
and
(B)do not meet such
standards and are not making significant efforts to comply.
(2)In making determinations under paragraph (1) as to
whether the government of a country is making significant efforts to meet
minimum standards for the elimination of inhumane conditions in prisons and
other detention facilities, the Secretary of State shall consider the extent to
which the government of the country is—
(A)regularly
monitoring the conditions of prisons and other detention facilities under its
authority, including permitting prisoners and other detainees to submit
complaints without censorship, cooperating with international experts on
eliminating and monitoring inhumane conditions in prisons and other detention
facilities, promptly investigating credible allegations of inhumane conditions,
and making information concerning conditions and investigations available to
the public and the Secretary of State;
(B)taking effective
steps to eliminate inhumane conditions in prisons and other detention
facilities, which may include, among other steps, appointing ombudsmen to serve
on behalf of prisoners and other detainees, providing alternatives to
incarceration for nonviolent offenders in order to alleviate inhumane
overcrowding, addressing the status and circumstances of confinement of
juveniles, improving pretrial detention practices, and implementing bail and
recordkeeping procedures to reduce pretrial detention periods and to ensure
that prisoners do not serve beyond the maximum sentence for the charged
offense; and
(C)increasing the
amount of government resources to eliminate inhumane conditions in prisons and
other detention facilities.
(3)The report required under paragraph (1) may draw from the
discussion of prison conditions contained in the Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices required under sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n(d) and 2304(b)), but shall for each
country provide a detailed and up to date report covering, whenever possible,
each of the issues set forth in section 3(2).
(4)The
report required under paragraph (1) shall be made available to the public,
including on a publicly available website of the Department of State.
(b)Assistance for
governments making significant efforts To eliminate inhumane conditions in
prisons and other detention facilities
(1)The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the
United States Agency for International Development should furnish assistance
for the purpose of helping to eliminate inhumane conditions in prisons and
other detention facilities to countries whose governments do not meet minimum
standards for the elimination of inhumane conditions in prisons and other
detention facilities but are making significant efforts to comply.
(2)Inapplicability
of foreign assistance act prohibitionThe prohibitions under
section 660 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2420) shall not be
applicable to assistance furnished to carry out the provisions of paragraph
(1).
(3)Grants made under this subsection shall be designated and
used exclusively to help eliminate inhumane conditions in the country receiving
the grant, but may not include the construction of new prisons. Funds made
available under this section shall be subject to the regular notification
procedures of the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of
Representatives.
(c)Negotiations
with governments not making significant efforts To eliminate inhumane
conditions in prisons and other detention facilities
(1)In
the case of a government receiving United States assistance that is listed in
the report submitted under subsection (a)(1)(B) as not making significant
efforts to eliminate inhumane conditions in prisons and other detention
facilities, the Secretary of State shall, not later than 90 days after the date
such report is submitted, enter into negotiations with such government to
achieve the purposes of this Act.
(2)Actions
regarding assistance and visas
(A)The
Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development may restructure, reprogram, or reduce United States
assistance for a government described in paragraph (1) to achieve the purposes
of this Act.
(B)The
Secretary of State may issue or deny visas for travel to the United States by
officials of a government described in paragraph (1) to achieve the purposes of
this Act.
(3)Not
later than 180 days after the beginning of the negotiations required under
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate congressional
committees a report describing the actions taken or agreed to be taken, if any,
during such negotiations by the government of that country that constitute
significant efforts to eliminate inhumane conditions in prisons and other
detention facilities and the actions taken, or that will be taken, by the
United States pursuant to paragraph (2) regarding assistance and visas. If the
Secretary determines that United States assistance to such government should
not be restructured, reprogrammed, or reduced, or that visas should be issued
or denied to officials of such government, the report shall contain a detailed
explanation for that decision.
5.Training for
foreign service officersSection 708 of the Foreign Service Act of
1980 (22 U.S.C. 4028) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
(d)The Secretary of
State, with the assistance of other relevant officials, shall establish as part
of the standard training provided for chiefs of mission, deputy chiefs of
mission, and other officers of the Service who are or will be involved in the
assessment of conditions in foreign prisons and other detention facilities or
the drafting of the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,
instruction on matters related to conditions in such prisons and other
detention facilities and the substance of the Foreign Prison Conditions Improvement Act of
2010.
.
6.New position to
monitor foreign prison conditionsThe Secretary of State shall establish,
within the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, a new full-time
equivalent Deputy Assistant Secretary level position which shall have
responsibility for advancing the purposes of this Act.
7.Authorization of
appropriationsThe Secretary
of State may use funds available for any fiscal year to carry out the
provisions of part I and chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq. and 22 U.S.C. 2346 et seq.) and the Support for
East European Democracy (SEED) Act of 1989 (22 U.S.C. 5401 et seq.) to carry
out the provisions of section 4(b) and section 6 of this Act and section 708(d)
of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, as added by section 5.
8.For purposes of
this Act—
(1)the prohibitions
of section 104(f) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b(f))
shall apply and shall not be construed to be altered by this Act; and
(2)the minimum
standards for foreign prisons and other detention facilities shall not be
determined based on the provision of services for which funding is prohibited
by that section.