Message to the Senate Transmitting the Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad

To the Senate of the United States:

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad, drawn up by the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs within the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) and composed of representatives of the Member States. The Convention was adopted and opened for signature at the twenty-third regular session of the General Assembly meeting in Managua, Nicaragua, on June 9, 1993, and signed on behalf of the United States at the OAS Headquarters in Washington on January 10, 1995. The provisions of the Convention are explained in the report of the Department of State that accompanies this message.

Although the United States is already a party to the multilateral Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, which entered into force for the United States, following Senate advice and consent to ratification, on July 1, 1985, only two other OAS Member States have become parties to that Convention. Ratification of the Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad would help fill a void by providing a mechanism for the reciprocal transfer of persons incarcerated in prisons in OAS Member States, to permit those individuals to serve their sentences in their home countries. A multilateral prisoner transfer convention for the Americas would also reduce, if not eliminate, the need for the United States to negotiate additional bilateral prisoner transfer treaties with countries in the hemisphere.

I recommend that the Senate promptly give its advice and consent to the ratification of this Convention, subject to an understanding and a reservation that are described in the accompanying State Department report.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

The White House,

September 30, 1996.