Trapped behind bars: Reforming Haiti’s broken detention system

Most of those people died “as a result of lack of medical care, unsanitary cells, insufficient food, and limited access to drinking water,” according to the latest UN human rights report about the situation in the Caribbean island nation.

Haiti is facing a dire humanitarian, political and security crisis due to gang violence, compounded by deep-rooted poverty and a series of devastating natural disasters, including most recently Hurricane Melissa.

The country’s justice system has struggled to function effectively amidst these crises. Cases are not being tried quickly enough and 82 per cent of prisoners are being held in detention while they await their trial.

Here’s what you need to know about prisons in Haiti and how the UN is helping to improve the situation for detainees.

Prisons under pressure

At the end of September 2025, over 7,200 men, women, boys and girls were held in Haitian prisons. Convicted criminals are often held alongside detainees waiting for trail and children are frequently being detained alongside adults in contravention of international standards, including the Nelson Mandela Rules, the universally acknowledged blueprint for prison management in the 21st century, named in honour of the former South African president who was incarcerated for 27 years as a political prisoner.

The occupation by gangs of urban areas where several prisons are located and high-profile breakouts, some led by gang members, have further reduced the capacity of the prison system and led to overcrowding.  

Some prisons accommodate at least three times the number of people they were built for.

Subhuman conditions

Conditions in Haiti’s prison have been described by the UN as inhuman and degrading but what does that mean in reality?  William O’Neill the United Nations Designated Expert on the Human Rights Situation in Haiti has visited many of them: “The conditions are subhuman, frankly. Unbelievably crowded and hot. There’s not enough food. There’s very little access to medical care. Prisoners are kept in cells for many, hours in a day with very little air or light, or access to water, toilets and showers.”

Fifty-two people have died in detention in the last three months in Haitian prisons many “of diseases that should not kill them,” said Mr. O’Neill, adding that “they are so weakened by the conditions and the lack of adequate nutrition and access to enough water, it’s a deadly combination.”

There is an allocated budget in the penal system to provide food to prisoners but often that money is corruptly diverted elsewhere.

Detained for the theft of two pairs of shoes

The deadly conditions have to a great extent been driven by accommodating too many detainees in insufficient space.

This chronic overcrowding is a direct result of the practice of incarcerating people ahead of a trail. Known as pre-trail detention, in Haiti 82 per cent of the national prison population is awaiting trial, so innocent in the eyes of the law, until proven otherwise at trial.

One prisoner told William O’Neill that he had been waiting for a trail date for two years; his alleged crime? The theft of two pairs of shoes.

“There’s a backlog because the court system doesn’t function,” said Mr O’Neill. “There are not enough trials and they keep on arresting people. Police will often arrest people en masse. Literally, they will come to a scene of an alleged crime, and arrest everybody they find. People get caught up in this kind of dragnet and spend a lot of time in prison even though they have nothing to do with the crime.”

Gangs of Port-au-Prince

Violence in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, where gangs are said to control 90 per cent of the territory, has led to the shuttering of numerous courts further slowing down the justice system.

Meanwhile, in March 2024, the capital’s two main prisons, the National Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince and the Croix-des-Bouquets prison, were attacked by gangs leading to the escape of 4,600 inmates, including several notorious gang leaders.  

Local sources indicated that many of the escapees joined and strengthened the ranks of several gangs.  

Rebuilding justice

Supporting prison reform and improving detention conditions in Haiti has been a key focus of the UN political mission in Haiti, BINUH, the Human Rights Office and the Designated Expert and a key pillar of the UN’s broader mandate to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. The aim is to bring long-term structural reform to address systemic deficiencies in the justice sector.

Initiatives have included supporting prosecutors and judges to attend hearings in prison which has led to the release of some young people and the reduction in pre-trail detention. Training has been provided for police and prisons officers, and the UN has supported the rehabilitation of detention facilities, including the installation of basic infrastructure such as latrines, water access points and ventilation systems.

Ultimately, it is Haiti’s Ministry of Justice which is responsible for prison and police reform and according to the Designated Expert, William O’Neill, the UN can support the authorities “by providing expertise and resources, but also demanding results. We’re not just going to keep providing training and equipment. There need to be results and sustainable results.”