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International Prisoner Treaty
Transfers:
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World Class Prisoners Transfer Assistance
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We are internationally-known prisoner treaty transfer
experts who work
with treaty-partner governments worldwide. To our
knowledge we have assisted more foreign prisoners obtain
treaty transfers than any competing firm, law firm,
lawyer or non-governmental agency. As a large
percentage of our clients are from Hispanic countries,
our logo "TIP" derives from the Spanish
Traslados
Internacionales de Presos¹ which means
"International Prisoner Transfers". |
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TIP specializes in assisting foreign prisoners transfer
from the United States and obtain treaty transfers to their home
country to serve the remainder of their sentence close
to their loved ones through the prisoner treaty transfer
process. We have been assisting prisoner treaty
transfers for more than 20 years. We are unique in
prisoner treaty transfer business because - once we take a
prisoner as a client - we work with that prisoner as long as necessary
to assist them to obtain a prisoner treaty transfer,
even until they are returned home by operation of law.
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In other words, we will work for as long as possible to
assist our clients to realize their hope to receive a
prisoner treaty transfer as pointed out in
a recent client thank you letter we received. In some cases we
have succeeded in obtaining a prisoner transfer in less than three months; in others we
have worked for years. Permission of the
United States and the receiving country are required to
obtain a prisoner transfer and
as such permission is discretionary, it is
always possible such may be withheld. |
Maximizing Treaty Transfers Potential
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In selected pre-sentencing cases, we often work with our
foreign prisoner clients under the direction of their
lawyer to both minimize the sentence to be imposed and
maximize the case profile to enhance prisoner treaty transfer
possibilities. In a recent case, as our
client's letter
stated, our efforts to assist him and his lawyer
resulted in the prisoner being sentenced to
seven fewer years than demanded by the prosecuting
U. S. Attorney. |
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We have also assisted prisoners from the
U. S. who are incarcerated in foreign countries
to return home to serve the balance of their sentence
here. In either case, whether the transfer is to
the foreign country or from the foreign country, the
penal law that applies to the completion of the sentence
in the law of the receiving country. |
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Treaty transfers of foreign-born prisoners are favored
because it is a legal conclusion by the U. S. that
rehabilitation is promoted when the prisoner is close to
his family and native culture. Prisoner treaty transfers promote such rehabilitation and that is
why the U. S. has spent extraordinary efforts to
develop a comprehensive set of bilateral and
multilateral Prisoner Transfer Treaties through which the treaty transfers
are facilitated. |
The Prisoner Transfer Treaty Network
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Under U.S.
law (18
U.S.C. §§ 4100-4115) foreign nationals convicted of
a crime in the U. S., and U. S. citizens
or nationals convicted of a crime in a foreign country,
may apply for a prisoner treaty transfer to their home country
if a treaty providing for such transfer is in
force between the U. S. and the foreign country
involved. |
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The U. S. has 12 bilateral
prisoner transfer treaties in force in the following
countries: Bolivia, Canada, France, Hong Kong S.A.R.,
Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Palau, Panama,
Peru, Thailand and Turkey. In addition, the U. S. is a party to two multilateral
prisoner transfer
treaties, the
Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of
Sentenced Persons (sometimes called the "COE
Convention" or "Strasbourg Convention" after the
city in which it was signed) and the
Organization of American States Treaty (called the
"OAS Treaty"). |
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Most prisoner treaty transfers between the U. S. and a foreign country involve Mexican
offenders
who are incarcerated under federal and state statutes.
You can review the
Mexican Transfer Treaty on our site. Mexican
prisoners make up, by far, the largest segment of
foreign inmates incarcerated in the U. S..
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The U. S. has enacted legislation implementing all
prisoner transfer treaties. See
18 USC §§ 4100 et seq. See also
28 CFR 2.62. |
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The consent
of the U.S. Government, the foreign government and the
prisoner is required for each prisoner transfer. If the
prisoner
was convicted of a crime by a state in the U. S., and is serving a sentence in a state facility,
consent of the state is also required. It bears
repeating that the decision to
transfer or receive a prisoner under the prisoner treaty transfer
system is a completely discretionary decision to be
made by each country. |
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Please review our
Organizations and
Links Page for more worldwide resources. |
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¹ Traslado in Spanish
means "transfer" and Preso in Spanish means "prisoner". |
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