” The Jacmel civil prison has no human beings, but beasts”, coordinator Arnel Rémy said while visiting the biggest prison of the Southeast department.

He stressed that, if the country´s Penitentiary Administration Department, the director of the Haitian National Police Frantz Elbé and the Justice Minister Emilie Prophète Milcé do nothing, “we will soon be able to face dozens of dead at the Jacmel prison”.

He also denounced the fact that all the septic tanks in the prison are full and give off a suffocating stench which affects inmates and officials.

He also criticized the size of the cells built for a maximum of 10 inmates and which currently house more than 100 men and women “jam-packed like sardines”, while there are not even medical dispensaries.

Rémy concluded that basic international standards are not respected and deplored the lack of adequate food for inmates whose “ribs can be counted”, in addition to the lack of hygiene with “dust, insects, bedbugs, cockroaches”.

In May, the human rights defender condemned a similar situation in the Saint Marc civil prison, northwest of the Haitian capital, where four inmates died as a result of the precarious conditions.

He also warned of a big problem at the Cabaret women’s prison, which has no access to drinking water.

Deaths in prisons have surged since last year as a result of the unsafe conditions, lack of food and water, in addition to a 401% overpopulation rate, according to the UN Integrated Office.

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