Foreign inmate transfer program has not worked

Mexico’s reluctance hurt effort

By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times
Wednesday, December 7, 2011

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An inmate transfer program that began in 1977 aimed at returning foreign nationals held in U.S. federal prisons to their home countries to reduce inmate populations, cut costs and aid rehabilitation is not working, according to a government report that says few inmates are ever actually transferred.

The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General, in a report Wednesday, says only a handful of foreign nationals from 76 countries who signed a transfer treaty are returned home each year. In fiscal 2010, the report says, slightly less than 1 percent of the 40,651 foreign inmates in federal prisons were transferred home.

The Justice Department incurred $15.4 million in unnecessary incarceration costs from fiscal 2005 through fiscal 2010 because of the untimely processing of requests for inmates ultimately transferred, the report says.

While there were “several reasons for the low transfer rate,â€