Human rights group, RNDDH, is concerned that police reliance on makeshift prisons amid insecurity and a crippled judicial system, makes for “inhumane, degrading conditions in overcrowded cells”.
The group reported after visiting six police stations in Haiti’s Ouest Department. They recommend urging immediate action from the judicial system, which has struggled for years and is facing strikes by staff calling for better work conditions.
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RNDDH said, “These people are kept in inhumane, degrading conditions, in filthy, cramped and nauseating detention centers converted into prisons, despite the fact that they were neither built nor equipped for this purpose.”
They shared that 92 prisoners were being kept in two “filthy” cells, intended for just 10 people each for a maximum of 48 hours ahead of court hearings – many of whom have been held for months.
Among those being held are 38 women, one of whom had been eight months pregnant in November, when she suffered a medical issue at the station. Another had not been examined for at least six months.
There has been no response as yet from Haiti’s prosecutors’ office and national police.
