SOMALINET NEWS ...Archives
HAITI: DOZENS OF INMATES ESCAPE HAITIAN PRISON December 7, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) As many as 30 inmates escaped through a small hole in a prison wall in the latest of several breakouts from Haiti's largest penitentiary, police reported Tuesday. Witnesses told local media that prisoners waited for a police patrol to pass before slipping through a 20-inch hole and fleeing the overcrowded National Penitentiary during the day on Monday, just blocks from Haiti's National Palace.
Police quickly cordoned off the area and searched houses for the inmates. It wasn't immediately clear how many escaped, but officials said up to 30 prisoners may be missing. Police Inspector General Fritz Jean said that the escape was under investigation, at the moment four prison guards were arrested on suspicion of involvement.
In July, 26 Haitian convicts deported from the United States escaped from a holding cell at the National Penitentiary. In February 2005, nearly 500 prisoners escaped from the same prison in a jail break allegedly aided by corrupt guards who unlocked the doors and allowed inmates to flee.
The prison was built nearly 100 years ago to house 800 prisoners but reportedly holds twice that number, many of whom have languished in squalor for years while awaiting resolution of their cases. When President Rene Preval took the oath of office in May, inmates rioted and gathered on the prison roof where they held aloft signs demanding their freedom.