HomeNewsBriefReport Proposes Offering Legal Aid to Curtail Prison Overcrowding in Haiti
BRIEF

Report Proposes Offering Legal Aid to Curtail Prison Overcrowding in Haiti

CARIBBEAN / 5 MAY 2017 BY TRISTAN CLAVEL EN

A recent report advocates increasing legal assistance for Haiti's prisoners awaiting trial, an initiative that could lessen some of the human and financial losses incurred by the island nation's broken justice system.

The research, published by the Copenhagen Consensus Center's Haiti Priorise project, argues that targeting Haiti's pretrial detention issue could incur financial benefits worth nearly three times the cost of the program.

Authored by Jimmy Verne, an economist from Haiti's Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation (Ministère de la Planification et de la Coopération Externe - MPCE), the think tank's report calls for the extension of an already existing legal assistance program launched in 2012, which led to the creation of nine Legal Assistance Offices (LAOs) that now cover five of Haiti's 18 "first instance" courts, where cases are brought in front of the judge for the first time.

The aim of the LAOs is to provide assistance to defendants who cannot afford legal representation. More than half of the Haitian population lives below the poverty line and nearly a quarter live in extreme poverty, according to the report.

Most of those jailed are poor and have yet to be sentenced. Out of Haiti's total prison population of 10,646 inmates in 2015, more than 72 percent -- or 7,665 -- were pretrial detainees. The report believes LAOs could facilitate trials for nearly 2,800 detainees, or about 30 percent.

SEE ALSO: InDepth Coverage of Prisons

In turn, cutting down on pretrial detention could generate substantial financial benefits. The study estimates that, on average, every prisoner freed through the program would save two years of prison costs for that person. Even convicted criminals would spend an average of one less year in prison with the help of LAOs, the study estimates.

Taking into consideration estimates on the economic productivity of released individuals during these periods, as well as the decrease in the costs that the state would assume to maintain individuals incarcerated, the report concludes that Haiti could save over $6 million by the end of 2018. This would amount to nearly three times the cost incurred by the expansion of the program to cover all of Haiti's municipalities.

InSight Crime Analysis

Haiti's justice system is broken, and its prisons are overflowing. In February 2017, an investigation published by the Associated Press revealed that prisoners died by the dozens due to the living conditions behind bars, with an estimated 80 percent of prisoners in pretrial detention. Haiti holds the worst prison overcrowding rate in the world, at more than 450 percent, according to the University of London's Institute of Criminal Policy and Research.

It is uncertain whether the document's theoretic economic conclusions would translate into concrete monetary gains. The report, for example, gives very little detail on how it reached the estimates of economic gains from released prisoners, in a country where the unemployment rate exceeded 13 percent in 2016.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Haiti

But the program's gains from a human perspective appear at least as valuable. Allowing for detainees to be tried would not only avoid the incarceration of individuals ultimately proved innocent, it would also decrease overcrowding and the mixing of prisoners, which, as InSight Crime detailed in a recent report, can serve as a catalyst for the growth of organized crime.

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

CARIBBEAN / 9 JUL 2021

Two days on from the nighttime assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince, competing theories have failed to provide…

CARIBBEAN / 29 JUN 2021

The owner of an armored transport company has been charged for his part in a transnational dirty gold network that…

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 24 JAN 2023

As American-made guns continue to flood the Caribbean, heads of state are demanding that the US do more to stem the…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

All Eyes on Ecuador

2 JUN 2023

Our coverage of organized crime in Ecuador continues to be a valuable resource for international and local news outlets. Internationally, Reuters cited our 2022 Homicide Round-Up,…

WORK WITH US

Open Position: Social Media and Engagement Strategist

27 MAY 2023

InSight Crime is looking for a Social Media and Engagement Strategist who will be focused on maintaining and improving InSight Crime’s reputation and interaction with its audiences through publishing activities…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.