US plans to build 2 prisons in Haiti
2013-02-16 11:30
-
Us
An old fashioned story by Mary Louisa Molesworth (1836-1921). The author of beloved children's...
Now R150.00
buy now
Port-au-Prince - The US government plans to build two
prisons in Haiti's countryside in an effort to stem severe overcrowding,
disease and violence in the poor Caribbean nation's prison system, a US
official said on Friday.
Carl Siebentritt, director of the Narcotics Affairs Section
at the US Embassy, wrote in an e-mail to AP that a prison will be built in each
of the coastal towns of Petit Goave and Cabaret.
"Prisons are so overcrowded that detainees are held
in temporary holding cells at police stations," Siebentritt wrote.
"By constructing new prisons that are consistent with international human
rights standards, the [US state] department seeks to alleviate this
overcrowding and to reduce the spread of disease and violence."
The department's Bureau of International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement Affairs estimates that the project will cost between $5m and
$10m, public records say.
The penitentiary planned for Cabaret, a town 32km
northwest of Haiti's capital, will hold women and help reduce crowding at a
women's prison in the Port-au-Prince area. It will have 200 beds.
It will also include a textile operation that will employ
up to 15 women and a vocational training programme.
The prison planned for Petit Goave, a town 70km southwest
of Port-au-Prince, will have 150 beds and replace one that was destroyed in
2004 following the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Contract bids are due in early March, Siebentritt said.
The project is part of a larger effort by foreign
governments and aid groups to improve conditions in Haiti's prisons, which have
been described as some of the world's worst.
The prisons are notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary,
and inmates often take turns sleeping at night because of lack of space.
The crowded facilities stem in large part because of a
dysfunctional justice system in which the majority of prisoners haven't seen a
judge or been convicted of a crime.
Inadequate record-keeping has made it difficult to
confirm the number of inmates held in prolonged detention, but the state department
estimates the number is between 2 000 and 3 000.
Dr John May, a South Florida physician who co-founded a
non-profit that seeks to improve health conditions in prisons worldwide, said
he made a medical trip last fall to the police station in Petit Goave, where
128 inmates were locked up in a holding cell.
The single room didn't have beds or running water, and
the prisoners had scabies or suffered from malnutrition, mental illness and
high blood pressure, he said.
"I'm very grateful some assistance is being
delivered to the prison programme," May said. "Prisoners are often
forgotten."
- AP
