[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 125 (Thursday, September 16, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7176-S7177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself and Mr. Brownback):
  S. 3798. A bill to authorize appropriations of United States 
assistance to help eliminate conditions in foreign prisons and other 
detention facilities that do not meet minimum human standards of 
health, sanitation, and safety, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  On page S7176, September 16, 2010, in the third column, the 
following appears: S. 3798. A bill to authorize appropriations of 
United States assistance to help eliminate conditions in foreign 
prisons and other detentions facilities that do not meet minimum 
human standards of health, sanitation, and safety, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  
  The Record has been corrected to read: S. 3798. A bill to 
authorize appropriations of United States assistance to help 
eliminate conditions in foreign prisons and other detention 
facilities that do not meet minimum human standards of health, 
sanitation, and safety, and for other purposes; to the Committee 
on Foreign Relations.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join today with the 
Senator from Kansas, Senator Brownback, in introducing a piece of 
legislation that has already attracted broad support from across the 
social and political spectrum.
  This bill, titled the Foreign Prison Conditions Improvement Act of 
2010, seeks to address a much neglected, global human rights problem--
the inhumane treatment of people in foreign prisons and other detention 
facilities.
  On any given day, millions of people are languishing in foreign 
prisons, many awaiting trial not yet having been formally charged or 
proven guilty of anything, deprived of their freedom for years longer 
than they could have been sentenced to prison if convicted. Others 
convicted of crimes, often after woefully unfair trials, including for 
nothing more than peacefully expressing political or religious beliefs 
or defending human rights. Regardless of their status they have one 
thing in common. They are deprived of the most basic rights and 
necessities--safe water, adequate food, essential medical care, 
personal safety, and dignity.
  Anyone who has been inside one of these facilities, or seen 
photographs or the press reports of what they are like, understands 
that I am talking about the mistreatment of human beings in ways that 
are reminiscent of the Dark Ages.
  A few examples are all that are needed to illustrate the point. In 
Haiti's National Penitentiary before the January 12th earthquake, more 
than 4,000 prisoners were confined in a space built for less than 900. 
Many did not have room to lie down and had to sleep standing up. 
Sanitation was practically non-existent. Deadly contagious diseases 
were rampant. The overwhelming majority of inmates had never been 
formally charged, never seen a lawyer or a judge. The earthquake 
damaged the prison and the prison guards fled, leaving the inmates to 
fend for themselves without food or water. They managed to get out, but 
the squalid facility is quickly filling up again. Today I am told the 
conditions there are worse than ever.
  A recent newspaper article described how in Benin, in West Africa, 
maggots digest the bodies of dead prisoners. The skin of prisoners is 
ragged from the extraction of fly larvae, a scourge that is symptomatic 
of the deplorable conditions. Many inmates suffer from tuberculosis, 
scabies, parasites, lung infections or other illnesses. The prison in

[[Page S7177]]

Abomey, located in southern Benin, was built in 1904 to house a maximum 
of 150 prisoners. These days, more than 1,000 are reportedly confined 
there.
  It is common in prisons from Central America to Central Africa to 
Central Asia for inmates to be severely malnourished and to go for 
months without being able to wash. Many prisoners depend for survival 
on food brought to them by their relatives. In many countries 
individuals awaiting trial, young and old, are housed together with 
convicted, violent criminals.
  Prisoners and other detainees in many countries are also routinely 
victimized by poorly trained, abusive guards, who are virtually 
unsupervised and unaccountable to any higher authority. Sexual abuse of 
men, women and children is common.
  A government commission in Cameroon reported that an average of five 
prisoners die per month in a prison there, simply from lack of proper 
medical care. Inmates in many countries suffer from HIV/AIDS and other 
illnesses, in prisons with no medical records, where doctors do not 
enter. Prisoners intentionally cut or otherwise harm themselves in the 
hope of receiving medical attention for life-threatening illnesses. If 
and when they are released, they infect the local population.

  A recent New York Times article described how in Zambia prisoners are 
punished by being stripped naked and held in solitary confinement in 
small, windowless cells, sometimes for days on end, in ankle-to-calf-
high water contaminated with their own excrement. It is like something 
out of The Count of Monte Cristo, only worse because it is happening in 
the 21st Century.
  But the article went on to describe how the Zambian Prison Service 
completed its own internal audit, appointed a new medical director and 
allowed human rights workers access to its facilities.
  The bill Senator Brownback and I are introducing seeks to provide 
incentives for those kinds of improvements. Our bill would do the 
following:
  First, it calls attention to this long ignored problem. Most people 
know little if anything about what goes on inside foreign prisons, and 
many would prefer not to know.
  Second, it sets forth minimum standards for the elimination of 
inhumane conditions in foreign prisons and other detention facilities, 
such as human waste facilities that are sanitary and accessible, and 
adequate ventilation, food, and safe drinking water.
  Third, it requires the Secretary of State to report annually on those 
countries that receive United States assistance that do not meet 
minimum standards for the elimination of inhumane conditions but are 
making significant efforts to comply, and those that are not making 
such efforts.
  Fourth, it encourages the Secretary and the Administrator of the U.S. 
Agency for International Development to assist countries that are 
making significant efforts to eliminate inhumane conditions. And for 
those that are not, it requires the Secretary to enter into 
negotiations with such governments to eliminate inhumane conditions. It 
authorizes the Secretary and the Administrator to restructure, 
reprogram, or reduce assistance, or to furnish or deny U.S. visas to 
the officials of the government of such a country, if doing so would 
help achieve that goal.
  The bill also provides for training of Foreign Service Officers, and 
creates a new full time equivalent Deputy Assistant Secretary position 
at the Department of State's Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and 
Labor to monitor foreign prison conditions, which has long been needed.
  Finally, it authorizes the expenditure of funds to implement the 
bill.
  Once enacted, the Foreign Prison Conditions Improvement Act of 2010 
will help foreign governments ensure that prisoners in their countries 
are treated as any people deprived of their freedom should be--as human 
beings, with dignity, in safety, and provided the basic necessities of 
life.
  In countries around the world, the United States is helping to reform 
justice systems and strengthen the rule of law. No justice system can 
claim to deliver justice if prisoners and other detainees are treated 
like animals, or worse. By helping to change attitudes, and showing how 
with relatively little money, conditions in a prison can be 
dramatically improved, we can help advance the cause of justice more 
broadly.
  Millions of people around the world still look to the United States 
as a defender of justice. This bill will further that goal, and it 
reflects the best instincts of the American people.
  This bill has already been endorsed by a wide range of groups, 
including the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern 
Baptist Convention, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, 
International Justice Mission, Open Society Policy Center, Penal Reform 
International, Prison Fellowship, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, 
National American Religious Liberty Association, United Methodist 
Church General Board of Church and Society, National Advocacy Center of 
the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Disciples Justice Action Network, and 
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bandais of the United States.
  An identical bill is being introduced today in the House of 
Representatives by Representatives William Delahunt and Joseph Pitts, 
so this is a bipartisan, bicameral effort.
  I want to thank Senator Brownback, and his staff, who have been 
extremely helpful in the drafting and introduction of this bill. At a 
time when some people seem to get satisfaction from calling Washington 
broken, this is a tangible example of how two Senators, of different 
parties, whose political views often differ, can work together in 
furtherance of a just cause.
                                 ______