Monday, Me Camille Junior Édouard, the new Minister of Justice and Public Security met in his office the Ambassador of Canada accredited to Haiti, Paula Caldwell St Onge.

The Minister and the Canadian diplomat have discussed the need to address the problem of overcrowding in the civil prisons of Haiti, a situation caused by prolonged pretrial detention.

The Minister Édouard said he was very concerned about this critical situation for which he intends to take all adequate and appropriate measures to, in the short term, relieve the prison facilities...

According to the Report of the Independent Expert on Haiti Gustavo Gallón, published last March "in 2015, the average rate of preventive detention remained above 70% of the prison population. This situation is particularly serious in the rehabilitation center for minors in conflict with the law (CERMICOL), with a rate of 90%, in the civil prison of women in Petion-ville, with 88%, and at the National Penitentiary, with a rate of 87%."

According to the National Police of Haiti, there was, in September 2015, 11,319 prisoners incarcerated in prisons in Haiti of insufficient capacity, resulting in an occupancy rate of 804% in the whole country and a space per prisoner who fell from 0.59 m2 in June 2014 to 0.54 m2 in November 2015.

According to the correction of the Minustah unit on the whole United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the international standard of space per detainee is 4.5 m2 stressing that in extreme cases, 2.5 m2 per inmate can be tolerated for short periods of time...

SL/ HaitiLibre