Most of these folks died “because of lack of medical care, unsanitary cells, inadequate meals, and restricted entry to consuming water,” based on the most recent UN human rights report concerning the scenario within the Caribbean island nation.
Haiti is going through a dire humanitarian, political and safety disaster attributable to gang violence, compounded by deep-rooted poverty and a collection of devastating pure disasters, together with most lately Hurricane Melissa.
The nation’s justice system has struggled to operate successfully amidst these crises. Instances are usually not being tried shortly sufficient and 82 per cent of prisoners are being held in detention whereas they await their trial.
Right here’s what that you must learn about prisons in Haiti and the way the UN helps to enhance the scenario for detainees.
William O’Neill (centre background) visits a detention centre in Haiti.
Prisons underneath strain
On the finish of September 2025, over 7,200 males, girls, girls and boys had been held in Haitian prisons. Convicted criminals are sometimes held alongside detainees ready for path and kids are often being detained alongside adults in contravention of worldwide requirements, together with the Nelson Mandela Guidelines, the universally acknowledged blueprint for jail administration within the twenty first century, named in honour of the previous South African president who was incarcerated for 27 years as a political prisoner.
The occupation by gangs of city areas the place a number of prisons are situated and high-profile breakouts, some led by gang members, have additional diminished the capability of the jail system and led to overcrowding.
Some prisons accommodate no less than 3 times the variety of folks they had been constructed for.
Subhuman situations
Circumstances in Haiti’s jail have been described by the UN as inhuman and degrading however what does that imply in actuality? William O’Neill the United Nations Designated Skilled on the Human Rights State of affairs in Haiti has visited a lot of them: “The situations are subhuman, frankly. Unbelievably crowded and scorching. There’s not sufficient meals. There’s little or no entry to medical care. Prisoners are saved in cells for a lot of, hours in a day with little or no air or gentle, or entry to water, bogs and showers.”
Fifty-two folks have died in detention within the final three months in Haitian prisons many “of ailments that ought to not kill them,” mentioned Mr. O’Neill, including that “they’re so weakened by the situations and the dearth of enough diet and entry to sufficient water, it is a lethal mixture.”
There’s an allotted price range within the penal system to supply meals to prisoners however typically that cash is corruptly diverted elsewhere.
A Haitian man who spent three years in pre-trail detention was launched with the assist of the UN.
Detained for the theft of two pairs of footwear
The lethal situations must a fantastic extent been pushed by accommodating too many detainees in inadequate area.
This persistent overcrowding is a direct results of the follow of incarcerating folks forward of a path. Generally known as pre-trail detention, in Haiti 82 per cent of the nationwide jail inhabitants is awaiting trial, so harmless within the eyes of the legislation, till confirmed in any other case at trial.
One prisoner instructed William O’Neill that he had been ready for a path date for 2 years; his alleged crime? The theft of two pairs of footwear.
“There is a backlog as a result of the court docket system does not operate,” mentioned Mr O’Neill. “There are usually not sufficient trials and so they carry on arresting folks. Police will typically arrest folks en masse. Actually, they may come to a scene of an alleged crime, and arrest all people they discover. Individuals get caught up in this type of dragnet and spend a variety of time in jail regardless that they don’t have anything to do with the crime.”
Gangs of Port-au-Prince
Violence within the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, the place gangs are mentioned to manage 90 per cent of the territory, has led to the shuttering of quite a few courts additional slowing down the justice system.
In the meantime, in March 2024, the capital’s two principal prisons, the Nationwide Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince and the Croix-des-Bouquets jail, had been attacked by gangs resulting in the escape of 4,600 inmates, together with a number of infamous gang leaders.
Native sources indicated that lots of the escapees joined and strengthened the ranks of a number of gangs.
A gang member poses within the Delmas 3 space of Port-au-Prince.
Rebuilding justice
Supporting jail reform and bettering detention situations in Haiti has been a key focus of the UN political mission in Haiti, BINUH, the Human Rights Workplace and the Designated Skilled and a key pillar of the UN’s broader mandate to strengthen the rule of legislation and human rights. The purpose is to convey long-term structural reform to deal with systemic deficiencies within the justice sector.
Initiatives have included supporting prosecutors and judges to attend hearings in jail which has led to the discharge of some younger folks and the discount in pre-trail detention. Coaching has been offered for police and prisons officers, and the UN has supported the rehabilitation of detention services, together with the set up of primary infrastructure comparable to latrines, water entry factors and air flow methods.
Finally, it’s Haiti’s Ministry of Justice which is liable for jail and police reform and based on the Designated Skilled, William O’Neill, the UN can assist the authorities “by offering experience and sources, but in addition demanding outcomes. We’re not simply going to maintain offering coaching and tools. There have to be outcomes and sustainable outcomes.”
