At the Law Offices of David Elden, we assist international (foreign national) prisoners to transfer back to their home countries to serve their sentence.
Our transfer specialist, Rachel Smith, is an internationally known prisoner transfer expert/specialist. During the 17 years of her specialization in the treaty transfer process she has assisted hundreds of foreign prisoners obtain transfers back to their home countries. These countries include Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Belgium, England, Israel, Armenia, Tonga, to name just a few.
The transfer program exists to allow foreign nationals sentenced and serving terms of incarceration in a foreign country, to transfer back to serve the remainder of their sentence in their home country. Once the prisoner transfers back to his/her own country, their sentence is carried out under the guidelines of the receiving country.
When we take a transfer treaty case and the prisoner becomes our client, we ensure that we handle our client's case until they are returned to their home country. We cannot guarantee an outcome --- but we do promise that we will do everything humanly possible, and even what seems to be the impossible for most, to see that the goal of returning to their home country is accomplished.
CONTACT our office for a Free Consultation: (800) 455-6200
The transfer program for international prisoners began in 1976 with a bilateral prisoner transfer treaty between the United States and Mexico. Today, the United States has bilateral treaties with several countries and is party to two multinational conventions which provide the basis for allowing the transfer of prisoners from the imprisoning country to the home country. The benefits are numerous and include: rehabilitation is more likely in ones home country, the prisoner will be more likely to get visits from family and friends, the language barrier, reintegration into his own cultural environment.
The length of the sentence remains the same, but it is carried out according to the laws of the receiving country. For example, if a person has a 10 year (120 months) sentence in the United States they can only earn 15% good time, leaving a term of 8.5 year (102 months) they would have to serve in prison before being eligible for supervised release. If they are Canadian and transfer back to Canada, they would be eligible for supervised release at one-third - 3.3 years (or 39 1/2 months) - of their sentence. If English and transfer back to England, they are eligible for supervised release after serving half of their sentence. The time granted for good time varies from country to country - but the point is, those countries offer more earned good time - most beneficial for our clients.
Prisoner transfers can occur only by consent of the sentencing country (and State if a State sentence), the receiving country, and the prisoner.
Basic Requirements
- The judgment and conviction must be final - no direct appeals or collateral attacks pending;
- The prisoner, sentencing country, and receiving country must consent to the transfer;
- The prisoner must be a national of the receiving country;
- A minimum amount of time must remain on the sentence (typically 6 months);
- No charges or detainers may be pending against the prisoner in the sentencing county;
- Dual criminality must exist (the crime of conviction must also be a crime in the receiving country).
We focus our assistance on the totality of the person by addressing those areas and giving support to our client's individual needs. We start from the premise that they are more than just the offense they committed - that they human beings with positive attributes that need to be emphasized and promoted in the process of our representation.
The benefit of using the services of our transfer specialist, Rachel Smith, in your effort to transfer, or have your loved ones transferred to their home country to complete their sentence cannot be overstated. She has developed a network of people she works with (both in and out of government), she has the administrative ability drive to carry the procedures through to the end, and she has the determination and sincerity to get the job done right. She has proven this over and over again with client after client.
