Haiti: HR Groups Warn of Prisoner Vulnerability to COVID

Haiti’s social justice organizations warned on May 27 about the health situation due to the COVID-19 outbreak in penitentiary centers.

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“In practically all of the prisons, there are dozens of prisoners suffering from a fever, but we can’t say for certain it’s COVID-19,” Haiti’s National Human Rights Institution’s Director, Renan Hédouville, stated.

According to the human rights advocators, "the figure is higher than officials registered." As Hedouville described, inmates face poor conditions due to prison overcrowding, poor ventilation, and health resources scarcity. 

“The director-general of the ministry of public health recently said that once someone has a fever it is a coronavirus. The National Penitentiary already has dozens of prisoners who have a fever; Petit Goave, where prisoners are kept in a police station and living in cruel conditions, they have a fever; in the Croix-des-Bouquets prison there are about 30 prisoners with a fever,” Hedouville expressed.

Societé Macaya’s human rights coordinator Jean Jeudy, also reported over 100 convicts were feverish and had headaches in Jacmel penitentiary, in a penal population of 500 inmates. "Many of these prisoners suffer from asthma, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS,” Jeudy briefed.

National Penitentiary authorities reported about 10 positive cases on May 27. According to local news media, Haiti’s government reinforced precautionary measures in penitentiary centers after possible COVID outbreaks among prisoners.

Prison authorities prohibited visitors and isolated new inmates from the domiciled penal population. As human rights organizations briefed Haiti’s prison system is one of the world’s most crowded, with an occupancy rate of 330 percent.

Thus far, Haiti registered 1,320 COVID positive cases, 34 deceases, and 22 recoveries from the virus.