WASHINGTON - Thursday’s release of US basketball star Brittney Griner in exchange for a convicted Russian arms dealer has resurfaced an old question: Do prisoner swops do more harm than good?

Amid the celebrations following Griner’s return, some critics, including members of Congress and federal law enforcement, argued such trades only encourage foreign states to target Americans to gain leverage over the United States.

Families of those detained abroad reject that argument, saying there is no hard evidence to support that and that the US government should focus on deterring and punishing governments which wrongfully detain or imprison US citizens.

The plight of American detainees abroad gained visibility after Griner’s arrest in February and as families stepped up their publicity efforts, concluding that years of quiet diplomacy did little to bring back their loved ones.

The details of Griner’s release highlight the painful trade-offs confronting the Biden administration. After months of negotiations – which US officials had hoped would bring home both Griner and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine Moscow accuses of spying – Russia was only willing to release Griner.

That trade meant a prison release for Viktor Bout, a Russian citizen US authorities have called one of the world’s top illegal arms dealers and who was captured after a global manhunt.

“The Russians and other regimes that take American citizens hostage cannot pretend that there is equivalence between the Brittney Griners of the world and people like Viktor Bout, the so-called ‘Merchant of Death,’“ said Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We must stop inviting dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans overseas as bargaining chips.”

The detention of Americans overseas is not new. From the Soviet Union’s capture of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in the 1960s to the Iran hostage crisis of the 1970s and the more recent imprisonment of US citizens in North Korea, Iran and China, administrations have wrestled with the question of whether and when to negotiate.

The problem has become acute, with some governments seemingly using arbitrary detention as a negotiating tactic. In one such case in 2016, North Korea detained American college student Otto Warmbier during a dispute with the international community over that country’s missile launches. Warmbier died just days after his return.

At the same time, US detainees’ friends and families are wielding public pressure on the administration. Griner’s February arrest in Moscow on charges of possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil triggered a surge of support from fans, celebrities and politicians calling for her release and criticising the Biden administration for not doing more.

Many of the families argue that the US should be willing to negotiate and discount the argument that prisoner swops lead more countries to grab Americans.

“I’m not aware of any concrete evidence that this will encourage more hostage-taking,” said Mr Harrison Li, son of Chinese-American Kai Li, detained by China since 2016. “And I think the important thing to emphasize is the executive order that President Biden put out, which is very clear in providing for proactive, punitive measures that can be placed on these countries.”

Mr Joe Biden in July signed an executive order authorising US government agencies to impose financial sanctions and other measures on those involved in the wrongful detention of Americans.

Families say they haven’t seen forceful implementation of the order.

The US does not provide an official figure for how many US citizens are held abroad, but the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, named after an American journalist abducted and killed in Syria, says that more than 60 US citizens are wrongfully detained in about 18 countries.

Beyond the question of whether prisoner swops incentivise detentions, the administration also faces criticism from law enforcement, where some question the wisdom of trading high-profile convicts like Bout.

“I don’t think you negotiate with terrorists, it’s a slippery slope, it doesn’t end well,” said Mr Robert Zachariasiewicz, a former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent who helped lead the team that arrested Bout.

“I’ve spoken to a great number of people throughout the Department of Justice at every level. They’re frustrated, they’re disappointed, they’re disenfranchised.”

The administration acknowledges the difficulties.

“Negotiations for release of wrongful detainees are often very difficult – that’s just a reality – in part because of the price that must be paid to bring Americans home to their loved ones and in part because the immediate results can feel unfair or arbitrary,” White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre said after the news of Griner’s release.

Those hard choices meant Washington could either leave Mr Whelan in Russian custody or else return empty-handed after months of negotiations. Mr Whelan’s family called the situation “a catastrophe”.

“Where are all these people with their other solutions on how we get Americans back?“ asked Ms Elizabeth Whelan, sister of Paul Whelan. “What’s the alternative? Yes it’s terrible to send someone like Viktor Bout back, for sure, but it means we get Americans home.” REUTERS