PORT-AU-PRINCE: A UN human rights expert on Tuesday condemned overcrowding at Haitian prisons and the slow pace of the country’s legal system that has left many suspects awaiting court dates languishing behind bars.
Prisons in Haiti are packed to more than 450 percent of capacity, according to the International Center for Prison Studies, one of the highest rates of overcrowding in the world.
Gustavo Gallon, an independent UN expert on human rights in Haiti, said he met a prisoner who has been jailed since December 2012.
The man was accused of buying a stolen gun, a crime that carries a sentence of a year and a half, but has been behind bars for more than three years because he has yet to appear before a judge, Gallon told a news conference in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
Nationally, 72 percent of inmates are awaiting trial, a situation denounced for decades by human rights advocates.
“Human rights violations are repeated every day,” Gallon said, adding, “These problems should have been solved long ago.”
