As part of its monitoring activities of detention cells (police custody) of the Department of the West, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) has noted that many police stations and sub-police stations are facing a overcrowding in their detention cells which are gradually being transformed into prisons without being intended for this purpose...

During the month of May 2023, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights visited 10 police stations: the police stations of Pétion-ville, Port-au-Prince, Delmas 33, Tabarre, Pointe-à-Raquette and Anse-à-galets ; the sub-police stations of Cazeau, Delmas 3 and Carrefour Cesselesse (Lilavois 48) as well as the police station of Gérald Bataille

As of May 23, 2023, the Port-au-Prince Police Station had a effective of 92 people (38 women and 54 men kept in two small cells each with a maximum capacity of 10 people, without taking into account international standards in terms of deprivation of liberty, which require a minimum of 2.25m2 of floor space per person.

These cells are cramped, dirty and give off nauseating odors, they were not built or fitted out with a view to keeping people over a long period...

Some detainees have been kept at the police station for several months, or even more than a year by order of the Public Prosecutor's Office after being interviewed... Others are kept there by order of the Departmental Section of the Judicial Police...

Download the RNDDH report - PDF in French) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/3-CP-Commissariat.SousCommissariat.Ouest-01Juin2023-FR.pdf

HL/ HaitiLibre