Haiti: Revolt Quelled in Haiti’s National Penitentiary

A prisoner revolt on November 9 is reported to have been promptly quelled. There were causalities among the prisoners but no fatalities, government officials say.

Witnesses nearby were shocked when they heard gunshots coming from within the prison.

Several units of the Haitian National Police, MINUSTAH troops and UN POL were called in to prevent any escape attempts.

Prisoners within Haitian jails have long suffered under grim conditions. According to statements by relatives and friends of prisoners as well as judicial authorities such as the state prosecutor, Claudy Gassant, several dozen inmates are being held in “preventative detention” awaiting a court decision to see if there are any grounds for their imprisonment.

Gassant told Radio Metropole that a lack of judicial discipline combined with the practice of “stowage”, the arrest of a large number of people at the scene of the incident, has increased the number of inmates in prolonged preventive detention.

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