736

Role of the United States Attorneys' Offices and Law Enforcement Agencies—Providing Assistance to the International Prisoner Transfer Unit

The United States Attorneys' Offices are responsible for furnishing facts and recommendations to the International Prisoner Transfer Unit (IPTU) that can be considered in deciding whether to approve or deny an offender's transfer request. Any relevant facts and recommendations that are requested by IPTU must be responded to no later than three weeks from the date the fax transfer request was sent from the IPTU. Information may be communicated by telephone, mail, E-mail, or facsimile transmission. A sample of the form used by the IPTU to obtain the views of the United States Attorneys' offices is provided on the following page. After the expiration of this three-week period, if the IPTU has not heard from the affected United States Attorney's Office, they will assume that the prisoner has no pending appeals or collateral attacks and that the affected United States Attorney's Office has no objection to the transfer requested. This policy is intended to assist in avoiding unnecessary delays in processing transfer applications. Although great weight is given to the views and recommendations of the United States Attorneys' Offices, such views and recommendations are not determinative of the final decision on any particular transfer request. When prisoners seek reconsideration of a prior denial of their transfer request (see this Manual at 735 ), the views of the involved United States Attorneys' Offices are generally solicited again by IPTU. The views of the law enforcement agency involved in the case are usually sought as well. Agency views can be very valuable, especially if the Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted the case is no longer with the United States Attorney's Office. In addition, the agency sometimes brings to the attention of IPTU matters of relevance to the proposed transfer, but about which the United States Attorney's Office may not know, such as the prisoner's involvement in related crimes or the fact that the prisoner is the subject of other investigations. In general, however, the views of the United States Attorneys' Offices are accorded greater weight than those of the agencies. [updated November 2002] [cited in USAM 9-35.010]