Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 21 February 2017

AP Exclusive” Malnutrition killing inmates in Haiti jails

DAVID McFADDEN upsurge of inmate deaths, flocked around a team of put in the prison 11 months barred windows.
Associated Press including 21 at the Port-au- Associated Press journalists ago. Not all the inmates are
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Prince penitentiary just last on a recent morning, ea- Prisons are crowded, dis- weakened by hunger.
(AP) — Dozens of ema- month. Those who monitor ger to discuss their cases mal places in any num- Some are provided meals
ciated men with sunken the country’s lockups are and complain of being all ber of countries. But Haiti’s by visiting relatives and
cheeks and protruding ribs sounding an alarm about but forgotten at the foul- penal system is by far the others are permitted by
lie silently in an infirmary at collapsing conditions. smelling furnace. Some 40 globe’s most congested, guards to meet with con-
Haiti’s largest prison, most with a staggering 454 per- tacts to bring in food, ciga-
too weak to stand. The cent occupancy level, ac- rettes and other things. AP
corpse of an inmate who cording to the most recent reporters saw one inmate
died miserably of malnutri- ranking by the University of with a wad of cash stand-
tion is shrouded beneath a London’s Institute for Crimi- ing near the main gate or-
plastic tarp. nal Policy Research. The dering spaghetti and fried
Elsewhere, prisoners are Philippines comes second plantains from a vendor
crammed shoulder-to- with 316 percent occupan- outside.
shoulder in cellblocks so cy. But the large majority of
overcrowded they have Inmates, some waiting prisoners are dependent
to sleep in makeshift ham- up to eight years to see a on authorities to feed them
mocks suspended from judge, try to keep their san- twice a day and get little
the ceiling or squeeze four ity by maintaining a daily more than rationed sup-
to a bunk. New arrivals at routine of push-ups and lift- plies of rice, oats or corn-
Haiti’s National Penitentia- ing jugs filled with dirty wa- meal. Even clean drink-
ry jostle for space on filthy ter. Others play checkers ing water is often in short
floors where inmates on or dominoes. Sentenced supply. Prison authorities
lockdown 22 hours a day In this Feb. 13, 2017 photo, a prisoner pulls a large stock pot filled convicts and the far great- say they try their best to
are forced to defecate with rice and beans during lunch inside the National Penitentia- er numbers of untried sus- meet inmates’ needs, but
ry in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Prison authorities say they
into plastic bags in the ab- try their best to meet inmates’ needs, but repeatedly receive pects pool together what repeatedly receive insuf-
sence of latrines. insufficient funds from the state to buy food and cooking fuel, little money they can scare ficient funds from the state
“Straight up: This is hell. Get- leading to deadly cases of malnutrition-related ailments such up to buy small TVs and ra- to buy food and cooking
ting locked up in Haiti will as beriberi and anemia. dios for their shared cells. fuel, leading to deadly cas-
drive you crazy if it doesn’t (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) But with widespread mal- es of malnutrition-related
kill you first,” said Vange- nutrition and rats scamper- ailments such as beriberi
liste Bazile, a homicide “This is the worst rate of percent of the country’s ing through cells made for and anemia.
suspect who is among the preventable deaths that 11,000 inmates are housed 20 men but now crammed “Whenever the money is
about 80 percent of those I have encountered any- there in appalling squalor, with 80 to 100 it’s hard to late it’s the prisoners who
incarcerated who have where in the world,” said a block away from govern- focus on anything but ba- pay,” said National Peni-
not been convicted of a Dr. John May, a Florida ment headquarters, and sic survival. tentiary Director Ysarac
crime but are held in pro- physician who co-founded many are tormented by “Only the strong can make Synal.
longed pretrial detention the nonprofit group Health the prospect of indefinite it in here,” said Ronel Mi- Haiti’s penal system is so
waiting for their chance to Through Walls to improve detention. chel, a prisoner in one of overcrowded that suspects
see a judge. health conditions in the “I’m really scared I won’t the crumbling cellblocks are held indefinitely in oth-
Overcrowding, malnutri- Caribbean and several Af- get to see a judge until where exterior walls are er fetid, cramped pens, in-
tion and infectious diseas- rican nations. I’m an old man,” said Paul stained with dried feces cluding cells at four police
es that flourish in jammed Prisoners at the crumbling Stenlove, a 21-year-old because the men have to stations, where malnutrition
quarters have led to an Port-au-Prince penitentiary murder suspect who was drop their excrement out of is common. q

680 Cubans returned home since end of ‘wet foot, dry foot’

HAVANA (AP) — About ported over the weekend. of negotiations focused in Feb. 17. It did not break women were deemed “in-
680 Cubans have been Cuba’s government had part on getting Havana to down which countries the admissible” for entry to the
returned to the island from long sought the repeal of agree to take back people 680 were sent back from. United States and placed
various countries since the “wet foot, dry foot” who had arrived in the U.S. The report said the final two on a morning flight to Ha-
then-President Barack policy, which it said en- Cuban state television said returnees arrived from the vana. Wilfredo Allen, an at-
Obama ended a long- couraged Cubans to risk late Friday that the return- United States on Friday “on torney for one of the wom-
standing immigration poli- dangerous voyages and ees came from countries the first charter flight espe- en, says they had arrived at
cy that allowed any Cuban drained the country of including the United States, cially destined for an oper- Miami International Airport
who made it to U.S. soil to professionals. The Jan. 12 Mexico and the Bahamas, ation of this type.” Florida’s with European passports.
stay and become a legal decision by Washington and were sent back to the El Nuevo Herald newspa- The women requested asy-
resident, state television re- to end it followed months island between Jan. 12 and per reported that the two lum and were detained.q