PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Haitian jail cells have been described as primitive and muggy. There are reports of poor hygiene.
And as some of the Americans get sick, Idahoans wonder if there is anything being done to help them.
"They are sleeping on the floor, there's no ventilation, and you can feel the steam coming out of there. This is a health concern because if these other people are sick they're gonna get sick, and in any minute they're getting fevers. We don't know what can happen," attorney for the detainees Jorge Puello said.
What can happen, has happened.
Last week, 24-year-old Charisa Coulter fell ill.
On Monday, Carla Thompson was being treated for swollen, infected legs.
The detainees have been in the same clothes for more than a week.
Concern is mounting that the American government is apathetic.
A viewer e-mailed and said she is alarmed that more is not being done to help the Americans.
We spoke with U.S. Sen. Jim Risch over the phone.
“I want to assure you that this is not something the government is just looking the other way," said Risch. "We have very limited abilities because this is a foreign government and this is a foreign judicial system and there our abilities are very, very limited."
Risch said the U.S. can not inject itself into the Haitian legal process because it could backfire or be counter-productive.
But the issue of prisoner welfare is different than a foreign country's justice system.
“If it's a medical condition or it's a safety condition or it's a welfare condition, the American government does not hesitate to press the host government to take specific action," Risch said.
He would not say if the U.S. had made that request to Haiti but added this:
"The Haitian government would of course not want to have something happen on their watch that the world be unhappy with," said Risch.
Earlier, NBC's Kerry Sanders spoke with KTVB from Haiti about his observations in the Haitian jail cell.
"It smells and imagine the smells that we're talking about. There is a lot of hygiene problems, although they are allowed to leave to go to the bathroom, it is just not an ideal condition. And there are bugs," said Sanders.
Risch says state department teams in the U.S. monitor situations involving Americans caught up in foreign courts, and there is a team staying on top of what's happening in Haiti.
There is also a team in Haiti that has met with the 10 Americans several times, and asked questions about their safety and their health.
"The government is not apathetic at all about this," Risch said.
He also says there is an American military hospital in Port-au-Prince and it is close to where the detainees are being held.
