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News from the Caribbean as of
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UN concerned about overcrowded prisons in Haiti
Monday, April 3, 2006
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): The United Nations mission in Haiti on Friday expressed concern about overcrowding in the country's prisons, where the majority of inmates have not been convicted and are being held in preventive detention.
The spokesman for the UN Stabilization Mission, David Wimhurst, denounced the fact that of the 4,034 people imprisoned nationwide only 450 had been convicted.
"We have seen a very worrisome development at detention facilities in Port-au-Prince where detainees who have not been convicted are being held because of prison overcrowding," Wimhurst said.
He said Haitian authorities have been urged to address the problem but have taken no measures.
Thierry Faggard, the head of the human rights section of the UN mission, said one way to rectify the situation would be to set up special commissions to study individual cases at the country's prisons and thus ease overcrowding.
"Some of the people being held in preventive detention have been in prison for longer than the maximum sentence they faced and others have never had their case looked at by a judge," Faggart said.
He said the Haitian judicial system was failing at all levels.
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