Prison Without Charge: Haiti Political Prisoners

<snip> Neptune, Privert, Mathelier and many other political prisoners are being held in Haiti’s largest prison, under horrific conditions. The extremely overcrowded National Penitentiary was, according to CNN, designed to hold six hundred inmates but exceeded one thousand before more than 480 escaped last month when gunmen attacked it, killing one guard. A December 1, 2004 riot at the notorious facility reportedly killed ten, but numerous witnesses said police and prison guards executed inmates, certainly resulting in many more deaths. Reportedly, jailed Aristide supporters often are housed with some of the same rebels who ousted Aristide, creating a volatile environment. According to a December 1, 2004 Miami Herald article by Jacqueline Charles, Jean-Juste, who during roughly seven weeks in prison was transferred to five jails, “shared his first jail cell with 20 prisoners -- no toilet, no water. The last one he shared with Harold Severe, the pro-Aristide former assistant mayor of Port-au-Prince. His neighbors there included Louis-Jodel Chamblain, an accused murderer and one of the leaders of the armed rebellion that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29.” Additionally, the article noted that the Reverend was forced to suffer indignities, such as having to wear the same shirt throughout his entire imprisonment. During her visit with Neptune, Congresswoman Waters called the prison conditions “deplorable” and said the former prime minister told her that he “believes he has been targeted to be killed.”

A 2002 study by the U.S. INS Resource Information Center described conditions in Haiti’s prison and detention centers as “extremely poor, and do not meet either national or international standards fixed by law.” The report also cited instances “in which prison authorities allegedly punished prisoners for complaining about poor treatment,” including one case on November 15, 2001, when “a riot erupted in the National Penitentiary after a prison guard beat to death a prisoner who complained about the conditions.” There is no reason to believe that prisons have improved under the Latortue regime, though there is ample evidence that they have worsened. A summer 2004 report by the Haiti Accompaniment Project found that, “All reports indicate that the patterns we observed – illegal arrest, prolonged detention without trial – continue and in fact are worse.” The report added, “It is not encouraging to learn that the U.S. State Department initially selected a U.S. prison consultant, Terry Stewart, to oversee reform of Haiti’s prisons. Mr. Stewart’s previous position was consultant to Abu Ghraib. During the time he served as director of Arizona’s prison system (1995-2002), the U.S. Justice Department brought a suit charging male prison guards with rape, sodomy and assault against fourteen female inmates.” Haiti’s and the region’s prison and judicial systems are clearly in need of a serious overhaul as a wave of prison riots have spread across Latin America and the Caribbean in the last few years—one of the deadliest occurred March 7 when battling inmates in a Dominican Republic prison started a fire that killed at least 136 prisoners. The possibility of an even greater tragedy at the National Penitentiary or another other Haitian detention center should be a major cause for worry. <snip>

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0503/S00250.htm