Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: National Security
prisons deteriorated still further. Detainees suffered from a
lack of the most basic hygiene as well as from inadequate food
and health care. Prisoners had to rely on families for food and
medicines. Most of the seventeen prisons were remnants of garrisons
built for United States troops in the 1920s and lacked
electricity, potable water, and toilets; many prisoners were
forced to sleep on the floor in densely overcrowded quarters.
The civil governments of Aristide and Preval have taken
some measures to improve the situation, with the help of international
humanitarian bodies. The government created Haiti's
first civilian prison agency, the National Penitentiary Administration
(Administration Penitentiare Nationale—Apena) , and
formed a corps of trained prison guards. The agency was
placed under the PNH in 1997 but retained most of its autonomy.
The prison population was 3,494 in late 1998. One section
of Fort National, the main penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, has
been refurbished to house women and juveniles. In other prisons,
overcrowding often prevents strict separation ofjuveniles
from adults or convicts from those in trial detention. In 1998
prisoners generally received one or two adequate meals a day,
often supplemented by food brought by family members. In
police station holding cells, where politically sensitive prisoners
have often been kept, detainees continued to be dependent on
their families for food. Prisoner health is a serious problem.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) paid
for the installation of rudimentary clinics, but the government
has failed to keep them adequately staffed with medicines.
Human rights groups such as the ICRC and the Haitian Red
Cross are freely permitted to visit prisons and police stations to
monitor treatment of prisoners and to provide needed medical
care, food, and legal aid.
Narcotics Trafficking
Haiti's geographic location between Colombia and the
United States, coupled with its long, unpatrolled coastline,
mountainous interior, and the presence of numerous airstrips,
makes the country an ideal transshipment and storage point
for Colombian cocaine suppliers. A lesser amount of marijuana
also transits Haiti. Haiti itself is not an important producer of
illegal drugs, nor has domestic drug consumption been a significant
problem. Narcotics shipments from Colombia reach
Haiti's southern coast via high-speed boats and by land and sea
drops from light aircraft. A portion of the drugs are exported
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