Last week, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee held a hearing on Human Rights Concerns in Bolivia: The Case of American Jacob Ostreicher. A number of U.S. lawmakers have joined Ostreicher’s family in saying that the U.S. State Department has not provided an adequate response to Ostreicher’s incarceration.

Jacob Ostreicher is a 53 year old American citizen, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He and his wife Miriam raised five children and are blessed with 11 grandchildren. Scrupulous in his business affairs, Jacob had a successful career built on a reputation of integrity and for the compassionate treatment of his workers.

Today, Jacob is languishing in a jail in Bolivia where he is at the mercy of prison gangs who have the run of the notorious Palmasola Prison. There are no guards inside the prison where the most hardened criminals make and enforce the rules. Observers report that there is an average of one “suicide” per month – the term used by officials there for inside murders.

Click HERE to watch this video from a mobile device.