In the last few weeks I have received two letters from the Governor's general counsel. Both had to do with inmates who have applied to be transferred to their country of origin under a treaty agreement to "serve the remainder of their sentence."

In the first instance the defendant was serving sixty years for a string of agg robberies, having previously served a ten-year term for two agg robberies. I lodged my objections and forwarded relevant material from the file. Shortly thereafter, I got a letter saying the gov. had denied the request.

A couple of days later I received another request for information for a murderer doing ninety. I have not yet heard back on that one.

A few questions: Does anyone know the name of the treaty or where I can find the text? Does anyone believe the defendants will really serve their time at home as they would here? Finally, have others been getting these letters? I found a similar letter in the murder defendant's file from five years ago.

One more: The victim service division of TDC had never heard of the program and is not notifying victims when the defendant's make these requests. Should they?

I think the current treaty is

Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Mar. 21, 1983, art. 10, T.I.A.S. 10824 (the Strasbourg Convention). See 35 U.S.T. 2867, implemented at 18 U.S.C. §§ 4100-15.
http://www.ofj.admin.ch/themen/rechtshilfe/prisonertransfer-e.htm

Article 42.17 CCP authorizes the Governor to consent. A group of Canadian prisoners argues that the governor must consent . http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/aicap_inmates_newsletter/HTML/2002/v01n02/v01n02.html

Older treaties include:

Treaty on the Execution of Penal Sentences, Nov. 25, 1975, 28 U.S.T. 7399, T.I.A.S. No. 8718 (Mexico).
30 U.S.T. 6263 (Mar. 2, 1977) (Canada);
32 U.S.T. 1565 (Jan. 11, 1979) U.S.-Panama);

It seems to me that the victim services people should be notified and that they should notify the victim(s). I don't have anything in the code, it just falls under the column of "that's the right thing to do".

Has the governor or his predecessors granted any of these that anyone knows of?

here is the true beauty of this website: ask a question and, like magic, the answer appears. Thanks, D.Merritt.



...The European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons allows a person serving a custodial sentence (sanction or punishment) outside their home state to return to their home state to serve their sentence, subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions. This is intended to facilitate their reintegration into society.

How much real reintegration could occur for guys doing this much time? I wonder as well about the level of supervision on parole & the grant of parole..

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 06-14-05 at .]

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 06-14-05 at .]

It really is a lot easier to hoist up the sail by using this forum!

I don't understand the title to this thread. Is it some country song?

The first mate he got drunk
And broke in the cap�n�s trunk
The constable had to come and take him away
Sheriff john stone
Why don�t you leave me alone, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up I wanna go home

So hoist up the john b�s sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don�t you let me go home
(hoist up the john b�s sail)
Hoist up the john b
I feel so broke up I wanna go home
Let me go home

Actually, Ben was quite accurate in his grammar: when the Beach Boys inherited the song from the Kingston Trio; the so-called purist version of Sloop John B was written as "I feel so break up, I wan' go home..." Later versions, recordings and ditties around campfires helped evolve the words break up into broke up, which is the way most of us would speak it, but probably not the way the islanders would say it, Mon.

And the Kingston Trio did have a talented banjo player which is probably why they faded into obscurity. He probably became a cop, and brought shame to the other two real musicians.

Sometimes age is a good thing, sometimes not, eh, A.P.? Certainly being old enough to remember the Kinston Trio falls into the category of a good thing. Remembering the words to the Sloop John B? Priceless.

Back to the question at hand: is anyone aware of the Gov. granting one of these? Do the inmates actually do the time as they would here?