By Youri Kemp From Caribbean News Now

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti — According to the World Prison Brief (WPB) ranking published at the end of January, Haiti has the highest prison occupancy in the world at 454.4 percent, which means that Haiti’s prisons are populated some 4.5 times the capacity to house prisoners.

According to the June 2016 study, in the 17 prisons in Haiti the space per detainee was a little less than 0.5 m2, far below the international standard, which is 4.5 m2.

This overcrowding causes many human rights violations, including major health problems, the spread of diseases, malnutrition and violence. In addition, some 72 percent of prisoners were in pre-trial detention without having been tried. The average length of pretrial detention is 1,100 days according to a United Nations MINUSTAH study in December 2016.

In the WPB dataset in relation to the Caribbean, closing out the top five countries per prison occupancy rate after Haiti are: Grenada, 234.8 percent (12th, world); Antigua and Barbuda, 226.7 percent (15th, world); Dominican Republic, 188.5 percent (29th, world); and The Bahamas, 172.7 percent (34th, world).

In terms of the amount of foreigners as a percentage of the population in the Caribbean, Aruba tops the list with a rate of 48.1 percent per 100,000 residents (16th, world) with Antigua-Barbuda and Anguilla at the #2 and #3 spot on the list respectively tied at 30.6 percent (40th, world).

The categories for the WPB dataset are:

1. Prison population totals
2. Prison population rate
3. Pre-trial detainees/ remand prisoners
4. Female prisoners by percentage of prison population
5. Foreign prisoners by percentage of prison population
6. Occupancy level based on capacity

The World Prison Brief (WPB) is a unique database that provides free access to information about prison systems throughout the world. Country information is updated on a monthly basis, using data largely derived from governmental or other official sources.

For more on this story go to: http://wp.caribbeannewsnow.com/2018/02/05/haiti-overcrowded-prisons-world/