Only one Palauan citizen is currently serving time in a US Federal Prison, information made available by the US federal government to the Island Times as the result of a legal request shows.
A datasheet released to the Island Times by the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons shows that the sole Palauan inmate, whose name or place of detention is not indicated, is serving time for drugs offences. According to the data-sheet, the inmate is incarcerated in a “typical” US federal jail, not in any kind of special facility.
The US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons is only responsible for prisoners convicted of offences against federal law. Among other offences, federal crimes include drug trafficking, securities fraud and civil rights-violations.
The US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Statistics indicate that the large majority of imprisoned persons in the US are held in state or country prisons, not in federal facilities. A litany of offences including murder, rape and larceny are typically prosecuted on the basis of state-laws, in state courts, particularly if the crimes are said to have no interstate dimension or bearing on interstate commerce.
Concern over rising drug crime has been a prominent issue in Palau recently. However, when put into context, the datasheet released by the US Bureau of Prisons to the Island Times does not bear out any suggestion that Palauan emigrants in the US are any more likely to be imprisoned for offences against US federal drug laws than any other group in US society. In fact, general imprisonment rates may be potentially lower than the US average.
Currently, just over 180,000 people are being held in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons. This means that roughly 1 out of any 2000 US residents is currently incarcerated in a US federal prison. At present, there are few reliable and readily available estimates of the number of Palauan citizens residing in the US; However, the number is estimated to be significant, accounting for a large majority of all Palauan emigrants living and working overseas. A 2008 bill before the OEK estimated that there were over 4000 Palauan citizens living abroad. If anywhere near this number of Palauan citizens is living in the US currently, the fact that only one Palauan citizen is currently in US federal custody would suggest that Palauan emigrants face a significantly lower rate of federal imprisonment than other social groups in the US.
The data paints a starkly different picture to that seen in the 1980s. Back then, far more than just one Palauan citizen found themselves in US federal custody in the era of Republican President Ronald Regan’s controversial, politicised “War on Drugs”; a hallmark policy of his right-wing, socially-conservative presidency. (Colin C. Cortbus)