HomeNewsBriefHaiti’s Hellish Prisons Symbolize Broken Justice System
BRIEF

Haiti’s Hellish Prisons Symbolize Broken Justice System

CARIBBEAN / 21 FEB 2017 BY TRISTAN CLAVEL EN

A recent report by the Associated Press depicts hellish and lethal conditions suffered by inmates in Haiti's jails, providing further evidence that, like many aspects of the island nation's justice system, the prisons are utterly failing.

The Special Representative in Haiti for the United Nations Secretary General and head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, Sandra Honoré, called on February 20 for authorities to take urgent action to address the issue of the island's penitentiary situation, noting that 42 prisoners have already died so far this year.

At least 21 of these deaths occurred in the capital city Port-au-Prince's prison in January, reported the Associated Press following an investigation into the dire incarceration conditions in Haiti.

The island's penitentiaries have the highest overcrowding rate in the world at 454 percent, according to data from the University of London's Institute for Criminal Policy Research relayed by the investigation. Some 80 percent of the 11,000 total inmates are in pretrial detention, meaning that they have never been convicted of a crime. A 2014 report by the London Evening Standard said that it was not uncommon for prisoners to be held for three years before their trial.

In addition, the state lacks adequate funds to provide inmates with drinkable water, edible food and sanitary housing structures. As a result, prisoners suffer from widespread and sometimes deadly malnutrition, as well as infectious diseases.

A doctor and founder of a non-governmental organization that works on improving penitentiary living conditions told the Associated Press that Haiti's jails are experiencing the "worst rate of preventable deaths that [he had] encountered anywhere in the world."

The report also notes that these conditions fuel corruption, as many inmates see bribing judges as their only way out of a prison system whose high mortality rate has led Danton Léger, Haiti's chief prosecutor, to finance mass burials of inmates.

"The men in there are forced to live like animals. They can at least be buried like people," the official told the Associated Press.

InSight Crime Analysis

The Associated Press investigation is the latest evidence of severe problems with Haiti's penitentiary system, as well as the judiciary system writ large. The dire state of the prisons suggests that the island nation is a long way from being able to develop rehabilitation programs that could help curb criminal recidivism, or ensure that impartial justice is carried out.

The issues with Haiti's penetentiary system are hardly new. In October 2016, Reuters reported on a massive prison break in which more than 170 inmates escaped, killing one guard and stealing firearms in the process. This incident is not an isolated case; InSight Crime had previously reported on the escape of 300 inmates in 2014 as a sign of the shortcomings within the prison system.

SEE ALSO: Special Investigation: The Prison Dilemma in the Americas

The broken penitentiary system also symbolizes the broader failings of Haiti's justice system, whose lack of capacity has resulted in widespread impunity. A string of Haiti's top politicians, including current President Jovenel Moïse, have been suspected of various crimes without ever facing trial on the island, a trend that suggests serious institutional weaknesses.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

HAITI / 13 MAR 2023

Gang leader Vitel’Homme Innocent has risen quickly in Haiti's criminal landscape. Now he's linked with the murder of former president…

COLOMBIA / 21 MAR 2022

A top Colombian drug trafficker walked out of a maximum-security prison in Bogotá without ever being challenged, exposing deep-seated corruption…

ARGENTINA / 1 FEB 2022

In 2021, most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a marked increase in murders. Resurgent violence was to…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…