[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 43 (Friday, March 22, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2335-S2337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself and Mr. Inhofe):
  S. 657. A bill to eliminate conditions in foreign prisons and other 
detention facilities that do not meet primary indicators of health, 
sanitation, and safety, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join today with the 
senior Senator from Oklahoma, Senator Inhofe, in reintroducing 
legislation that has already attracted broad support from across the 
social and political spectrum. An almost identical version was reported 
by the Foreign Relations Committee two years ago, and then last 
December it was cleared by both sides for passage by unanimous consent 
but the Senate adjourned shortly before it could be adopted.
  This bill, titled the Foreign Prison Conditions Improvement Act of 
2013, seeks to address a much neglected, global human rights and 
humanitarian 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 in pretrial detention having never been brought before a 
judge or formally charged or proven guilty of anything, deprived of 
their freedom in abysmal conditions, often for years longer than they 
could have been sentenced to prison if convicted.
  Others are imprisoned after being convicted of offenses, 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 press reports of what they are like, understands that 
this is about the mistreatment of human beings in ways that are 
reminiscent of the Dark Ages.
  A few examples illustrate the point. In Haiti's National Penitentiary 
before the 2010 earthquake, more than 4,100 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 filled up again.
  Senator Whitehouse and I visited that facility just last month. It 
currently holds more than 3,700 prisoners of which more than 3,400 are 
awaiting trial. Thanks to the State Department, the U.S. Agency for 
International Development, and a small Florida-based organization, 
Health Through Walls, a new infirmary and X-ray machine have 
dramatically reduced the incidence of HIV and tuberculosis. A small 
Vermont-based organization, the Rural Justice Center, is using USAID 
funds to chip away at the pretrial detention problem. These are 
examples of how modest funding can save lives and improve access to 
justice for prisoners in facilities plagued by abysmal conditions.
  I recall a newspaper article about how in Benin, in West Africa, the 
skin of prisoners was ragged from the extraction of fly larvae, an 
affliction that is symptomatic of the deplorable conditions. Many 
inmates suffer from tuberculosis, scabies, parasites, lung infections 
or other illnesses. The prison in Abomey, located in southern Benin,

[[Page S2336]]

was built in 1904 to house a maximum of 150 prisoners. A year or two 
ago, more than 1,000 were reportedly confined there.
  Last February, a fire at the Comayagua Prison in Honduras killed 360 
inmates. In one overcrowded cell block only four of 105 prisoners 
survived. More than half of those who died were waiting to be charged 
or tried.
  It is common in prisons from Latin America to the Middle East, 
Africa, and 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 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.
  Prisoners in many countries die in prison from lack of proper medical 
care. Inmates suffer from AIDS and other illnesses in facilities 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 New York Times article described how prisoners in one African 
country were 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 that country's prison service conducted its own audit, appointed a 
new medical director, and allowed human rights workers access to its 
facilities. The legislation Senator Inhofe 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 primary indicators 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 the 
conditions in prisons and other detention facilities in at least 30 
countries receiving United States assistance or under sanction by the 
United States, selected by the Secretary's determination that such 
conditions raise the most serious human rights or humanitarian 
concerns.
  Fourth, it encourages the Secretary and the Administrator of the U.S. 
Agency for International Development to furnish assistance for the 
purpose of eliminating inhumane conditions where such assistance would 
be appropriate and beneficial.
  For countries that are not making significant efforts to eliminate 
such conditions, the Secretary is to enter into consultations with 
their government to achieve the purposes of the Act.
  The legislation also provides for training of Foreign Service 
Officers, and directs the Secretary to designate, within the Department 
of State's Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, an official 
with responsibility for implementing the provisions of the Act.
  Finally, it authorizes the expenditure of funds to implement the Act.
  Once enacted, the Foreign Prison Conditions Improvement Act of 2013 
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 prison conditions can be significantly 
improved, we can help advance the cause of justice more broadly.
  Millions of people around the world look to the United States as a 
defender of justice. This legislation will further that goal and it 
reflects the best instincts of the American people. It has been 
endorsed by a wide range of groups, including Amnesty International, 
USA; Baptist World Alliance, Division of Freedom and Justice; Ethics 
and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; 
Human Rights First; Human Rights Watch; International CURE; 
International Justice Mission; International Prison Chaplains' 
Association; Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Just Detention 
International; Justice Fellowship/Prison Fellowship Ministries; 
National Association of Evangelicals; National Religious Campaign 
Against Torture; New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good; Open 
Society Policy Center; Penal Reform International; Religious Action 
Center of Reform Judaism; United Methodist Church, General Board of 
Church and Society; and the United States Conference of Catholic 
Bishops. I want to thank these groups for their support and their 
efforts to focus attention on this urgent problem.
  Identical legislation is planned for reintroduction in the House by 
Representative Chris Smith who cares deeply about this issue, so this 
is a bipartisan, bicameral effort.
  Finally, I want to thank Senator Inhofe, who has visited many African 
countries and has witnessed the problems this legislation seeks to 
address, as well as his staff, who have been very helpful throughout 
this process. At a time when some people seem to get satisfaction from 
calling Washington broken, this is another example of how two Senators, 
of different parties, whose political views often differ, can work 
together in furtherance of a just cause.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I join my 
friend Senator Leahy from Vermont in introducing, the Foreign Prison 
Conditions Improvement Act of 2013.
  As I stated when we introduced this bill in the 112th Congress, our 
bill seeks to identify and eliminate unhealthy and unsafe prison 
conditions found in developing countries like Haiti and on the African 
continent where millions suffer inhumane conditions as well as to 
address the dysfunctions in their legal systems.
  The introduction of this bill comes at an appropriate time because 
Jon Hammer, the imprisoned U.S. Marine being held in the Cedes Prison 
in Matamoras, Mexico was freed this past December 21st.
  Corporal Hammer, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was arrested in 
August and charged with a Federal weapons felony--facing up to 15 years 
in prison, for carrying an antique gun into Mexico on his way to Costa 
Rica for a hunting trip, despite, as I understand it, having a required 
permit and attempting to declare the gun. During the past 90 days, he 
faced the same harsh conditions that our bill is trying to address. 
Namely, Hammer was housed in an overcrowded and unsanitary prison, 
beaten by fellow inmates who were members of the murderous Mexican drug 
cartels, threatened with death in an extortion attempt by these inmates 
and chained to a bed.
  I had been involved in seeking Jon's release for several weeks, and I 
was heartened when he was released. His treatment, however, serves as 
an excellent example of the deficiencies found everyday in foreign 
prisons worldwide from Africa to no further away than our southern 
border.
  Our bill focuses on eliminating excessive pre-trial detention and 
dysfunctional justice systems which frequently result in prisoners and 
other detainees spending years in unhealthy prison conditions before 
their cases are even adjudicated. Tragically, inadequate, misplaced or 
lost records often result in the incarcerated being held indefinitely 
because their cases have never been heard. Unbelievably, such poor 
recordkeeping has kept many in prison long after their sentences have 
been served. Our bill also encourages these nations to provide humane 
and sanitary prison conditions so that prisoners can be released in 
good health, and thus stem one of the causes of the spread of HIV and 
tuberculosis among the general public.

[[Page S2337]]

  Our bill calls upon the Department of State to submit to Congress an 
annual report for five years that describes inhuman prison conditions 
at least 30 countries receiving U.S. foreign assistance. It gives the 
Secretary of State and Administrator of the U.S. Agency for 
International Development the discretion to restructure, reprogram or 
reduce U.S. foreign assistance to these countries based upon whether 
they are making ``significant efforts'' to eliminate inhuman conditions 
in their prisons and other detention facilities.
  The goals of this bill are noble, but it will take close monitoring 
and hard work by our U.S. Foreign Service personnel on the ground 
overseas to fulfill this work. That is why our bill directs the 
Secretary of State to provide training to these embassy and consulate 
personnel so that they can effectively investigate and assess prison 
conditions in foreign prisons as well as assist these foreign 
governments to adopt substantive prison reforms. The Secretary is also 
directed to designate and task a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State 
within the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor with the 
responsibility for gathering the information for the annual report and 
make recommendations to the Secretary based off its conclusions.
  I have made 128 African country visits over the past 16 years, and I 
believe that given the chance, the majority of Africa's leaders will 
welcome the opportunity to interact with our embassy and consulate 
personnel and adopt the best practices for achieving the elimination of 
unhealthy and unsafe conditions in their prisons and other detention 
facilities. It is also my hope that our neighbors to the south will 
adopt safe and sanitary prisons conditions and correct the dysfunctions 
in their justice systems so that another U.S. citizen does not have to 
spend 90 days in prison for a paperwork error.
  The task at hand reminds me of the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 
25:39:40 when he said, `` `When did we see you sick or in prison and 
visit you?' And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you 
did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' ''
  We are all our brothers' keepers.
                                 ______