In 1999, the United States set a new record by executing 98 prisoners. Among those executed were foreign nationals whose right to consular notification had been violated, individuals who may have been mentally ill or retarded and juvenile offenders. Six persons were exonerated on grounds of innocence and released from death row during 1999. In a positive development, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that the death penalty was in contradiction with the provision of the constitution that guaranteed the right for life, declaring all articles of the criminal code providing for the death sentence unconstitutional. In most former Soviet republics, prison conditions are deplorable.
Prisons are overcrowded and unhygienic.
Due to lack of space, prisoners often have to sleep in shifts, their meals are of poor quality, and medical care is often virtually nonexistent. In Russia, prisoners have died of oxygen deficiency. Meanwhile, in the U.S., a UN special rapporteur reported extensive sexual misconduct and systematic violations of women's right to privacy in U.S prisons. In some countries the treatment of the mentally ill or handicapped raised serious concern. The report criticizes the Ilgi facility for persons with mental disabilities in Latvia.