# What ought US policy be towards US citizens jailed abroad? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 15, 2022, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ought-us-policy-be-towards-us-citizens-jailed-abroad/968008 "2022-07-15T13:06:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ought-us-policy-be-towards-us-citizens-jailed-abroad/968008/1 "2022-07-15T13:06:47Z")
For some time, I’ve been seeing [news articles about a WNBA player who is on trial in Russia for drug charges.](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/us/brittney-griner-hearing-russia/index.html) This morning, I read another [article about 3 Americans detained in Venezuela.](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/politics/americans-detained-venezuela/index.html). In the past, there have been many other such instances, ranging from people charged with spying, that kid who was caned for vandalism in Singapore, missionaries charged with illegal importing bibles… As a general matter, news coverage impresses me as generally sympathetic towards these people, and there is discussion of the US government taking action - including the release of prisoners held in the US - to obtain their release. What sorts of factors do you consider in evaluating such situations? In general, I’m not terribly sympathetic towards people who violate the laws of countries they visit. And I’m not even terribly sympathetic towards people who choose to travel to and/or do business in potentially risky countries. And I generally do not favor the US changing its foreign policy to extract such people. But I am interested in how others view these situations. I recognize that the US is not entirely altruistic - I suspect the government takes steps to have bargaining chips of its own for such situations, and I am confident that at least some of these ostensibly innocent travelers were in fact spies or otherwise advancing US goals. But I sure know how I can guarantee that Venezuela will never arrest me for any reason, and Russia will not arrest me for inadvertently bringing drugs into Russia. I am intentionally limiting the discussion to persons detained by official state governments, as opposed to rebel groups, or in war zones, tho I’m happy to hear views of such situations if it does not overly distract from my question. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ought-us-policy-be-towards-us-citizens-jailed-abroad/968008)._