Haitian Prison: Just how overcrowded is overcrowded?

[bcholmes]

I was working on some write-ups over the last coupl'a days and went hunting for some stats. In my searches, I came upon this Amnesty International paper, and from it I scraped this data about the prison that I visited:

Pre-trial detention refers to the period of time between arrest and judgment of an individual accused of committing a crime. Preventive and long-term pre-trial detention remains the rule in Haiti. Detainees are arbitrarily arrested and held for long periods without being able to challenge the legality of their detention. The Code of Criminal Investigation allows for release on bail pending trial, but this measure is seldom applied (Chapter VIII, Articles 95-108). Detainees remain in prison during the investigation of the crime they are alleged to have committed, and often exceeds the three-month time limit provided by law.

According to reports from national human rights organizations and the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, prisons are over-crowded and less than 20% of the 8,833 prisoners held as of the end of October 2009 had been brought to trial.

Prison overcrowding is of great concern and could amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. According to a Haitian NGO, National Human Rights Defence Network (Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains, RNDDH), at the end of October 2009, there were 5.5 times more prisoners in the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince than its maximum capacity, in blatant violation of international norms regarding the minimum conditions for the detention and treatment of prisoners (4,317 prisoners were occupying a prison built for 800 prisoners).

Although I'm generally pretty suspicious of RNDDH (formerly known as NCHR-Haiti -- the same organization that printed lies that got Ronald Dauphin arrested), these numbers seem consistent with the numbers I heard in Haiti.