MICHAEL COLLINS November 1 2017
During the 1991 – 1994 Embargo period, I visited the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince with an Embassy/international group investigating prison conditions. At that time there were some 450 people there. It now houses something like 10 times that manyin steadily deteriorating conditions.
This year there was a scandal when more than 20 starved to death.YES…. STARVED TO DEATH!!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mass-funeral-held-20-haitians-died-dismal-prison-171114172.html
BECAUSE PRISON DIRECTOR STOLE FUNDS FOR FOOD!!!! AND HE IS STILL FREE !
Conditions have worsened with each passing month and there is no optimistic solution with a Justice System not capable of handling existing cases, without the burden of a daily addition of dossiers.
A person could spend their life, waiting for a court appearance – even if innocent.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE!
If my President, Jovenel Moise, does nothing else, his immediate move to end Preventative Detention for anything other than serious crimes- such as bribed Senators and Deputies, cocaine traffickers, murderers, rapists, kidnappers and child molesters – he would receive national, and international acclaim for the action.
Perhaps a Nobel Prize!
I mean, give me a break, the attached article describes a lady who was accused of stealing a cell phone – 3 years ago – and she has yet to appear before a judge. Her chances of dying in prison, years from now, are good as fellow inmates die from starvation cholera, tuberculosis and other minor diseases brought on by the impossible conditions that exist.
Every time I suggest and end to PREVENTATIVE DETENTION I am met with a convoluted argument, by those who have money and friends that guarantee no arrest, for any sort of crime. They claim it is some sort of Constitutional problem magnified by a paralyses Justice system.
Our Justice system is broken and cannot cope with the continuous inflow of new prisoners.
At this rate the prison population will continue to expand, exponentially, as the court system remains constipated, and the cell phone accused – PROBABLY INNOCENT – remains in jail.
Even if guilty, what sentence would theft of a $20 cell phone bring?
Surely not 3.5 years, and counting.
The Lavalas chief of a bank has just overseen the theft of $23,000,000 and he hasn’t even been investigated!!
Her son arrested for walking on street without identification. Once trapped in the system it is impossible to extricate anyone without a lot of money and this lady has none.
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Haitian society has never been fair. President Moise is doing his best to change the terrible “Status Quo” to one that favors our 12,000,000 and not a few dozen individuals and families.
Hans Allan Theophile, the Intellectual Author of the murder of Mortet Didier, Air France’s manager was convicted, then released a short time later. Lucky for him he didn’t steal a cell phone!!
Just look at our society where murderers like Arnel Belizaire, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Don Kato and Moise Jean Charles are front and center on the political scene, accompanied by cocaine traffickers such as Senator E. Beauplan, ex-President Aristide, and a huge percentage of our business community.
Steal a few million from our childrens’ education funding, and nothing happens. Nesmy Manigat is the living example.
Be accused of stealing a cell phone – even if the accuser is just a jealous lady, who thinks the accused stole her boyfriend, – and the PNH throws you in the jail, where you are effectively forgotten- FOREVER.
Many die from the truly terrible conditions that generate tuberculosis, simple infections become life-threatening as poor diets destroy body’s ability to resist.
CLICK ON THIS LINK TO LEARN OF THE CELL PHONE LADY – 3.5 YEARS IN PRISON WITH NO COURT APPEARANCE – DISGUSTING – DISGUSTING – DISGUSTING!!!!
WE HAD A SIMILAR SITUATION WITH A POOR LADY WE KNEW WAS INNOCENT. SENT HER TO AN AVOCAT. HIS SOCIAL CONSCIENCE SAW HIM REQUEST $1,100 USD TO REPRESENT HER AND SHE EARNS 800 HAITIAN PER MONTH, SUPPORTS 2 KIDS.
WE KNEW SOMEONE IN PNH THAT GOT HER RELEASED!
http://blogs.pjstar.com/haiti/2017/10/28/women-imprisoned-in-haiti/
AND THEN LOOK AT THIS ONE WITH PHOTOS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4241466/Haitian-prison-inmates-live-filthy-conditions.html
President Moise, cut through the bureaucratic stupidity.
Issue a Decree to free – immediately – all of the prison inmates accused of non-violent crimes. The economic effect will be a major one since keeping 11,000 people imprisoned is expensive, even when funds are stolen by directors..
And, politically, there isn’t a family that would not be affected by the release of this Haitians.
The International Community will be supremely supportive of this one act of Statesmanship!
ONLY YOU CAN DO THIS, AN ACT A HUMANITY IN A NATION THAT HAS LOST SIGHT OF THIS VALUE. NO ONE CARES FOR THESE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY ARE “NOTHING.” THE SITUATION WAS CREATED UNDER ARISTIDE AND ACCELERATED UNDER PREVAL. UNFORTUNATELY, NOTHING WAS DONE DURING THE MARTELLY YEARS. PRIVERT WAS TOTALLY DISINTERESTED SINCE HE WAS THE NATION’S MAJOR CRIMINAL!
PRESIDENT MOISE PLEASE HELP US!!!
WE ARE HAITIANS TOO!
AND MOST OF US ARE TOTALLY INNOCENT
WHILE THE MAJORITY OF THE SENATE AND CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES AREN’T AND SHOULD SHARE CELLS WITH US.