NCJ Number
133713
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 53 Issue: 7 Dated: (December 1991) Pages: 78,80,81
Date Published
1991
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Foreign inmates suffer a double imprisonment by being deprived of their freedom and being in a strange country where they may know no one. The situation of foreign inmates in developing and industrial nations is usually very different.
Abstract
In most developing countries, the percentage of foreign inmates is very low. In general, foreign inmates are not afforded any special treatment, except that their Embassy is notified of their imprisonment and they are often housed together. They are expected to learn the language and figure out the legal system; they often receive harsher sentences than natives committing the same offense. In industrialized European nations, the percentage of foreign inmates is often very high. Some efforts have been made by religious, social, and cultural organizations to help these inmates adjust to their incarceration. Correctional administrators could take several steps to meet the needs of foreign inmates by receiving training in other languages and cultures, visiting other nations' correctional systems, welcoming volunteers, providing foreign inmates with reading materials from their own countries, and pressing for prisoner-exchange treaties to be mediated through the United Nations.