Prisoners escape from Haitian prison north of the capital – third prison break within a few months

Inmates have escaped from another prison in Haiti. The latest prison break occurred north of the capital in the town of St. Marc, where the local business community has been calling for police reinforcements for days to crack down on ruthless gangs invading the city.

The local police station in St. Marc has issued a notice informing the public of the prison break, asking the public to report to police any suspicious persons who resemble escaped prisoners and saying that local police are “mobilized to search for” Friday's escapees.

Video footage shows prisoners climbing over a wall and others running through a street accompanied by armed gang members. It is still unclear how many prisoners escaped and whether the incident was a gang attack or an internal security breach. An attempt to reach the Haitian National Police spokesman has so far been unsuccessful.

This is the third prison break in Haiti in five months. In early March, gangs raided the country's two largest prisons, the National Prison and the Civil Prison in Croix-des-Bouquets, leading to the escape of more than 4,000 inmates. Among the escapees were dangerous criminals, including gang leaders, murderers and people accused of the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

“So far, the police have not said how many of them have been captured,” said Marie Yolene Gilles, a human rights activist who closely monitors Haiti's prisoners and confirmed St. Marc's escape.

Gilles said she was still trying to gather details, but she was not surprised. “When one prison falls, others fall; it's like a domino effect,” she said.

In July, St. Marc prison housed about 500 inmates, said Gilles, who heads the Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation. Last month, the prison administration transferred more than 150 inmates from a prison in the town of Carrefour, south of Port-au-Prince, after armed gangs attacked the main police station.

Armed groups continue to penetrate cities in Haiti, despite the arrival of 400 Kenyan police officers deployed in June as part of a multinational security mission. Violence broke out in the capital's Solino neighborhood, not far from the presidential palace, on Thursday night. Haitian national police attempted on Thursday to arrest one of the gang leaders who escaped in the March prison break. There are unconfirmed reports of deaths in both incidents, including police officers.

According to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, there were 7,523 people in Haitian prisons as of June 30. Of these, 84 percent were in pre-trial detention, meaning they had never seen a judge, and cells were 295 percent over capacity.

Haiti's prison system is one of the most problematic in the region. Not only are prisons overcrowded and prone to security breaches, but inmates also suffer from food shortages, poor hygiene and disease, including a rise in HIV/AIDS and malnutrition. The poor conditions regularly lead to deaths.

Between April 1 and June 30, 78 prisoners died, according to the UN, “most of them due to lack of care… inadequate nutrition and lack of access to drinking water.” Three more deaths were added this week when prisoners at the Jacmel civil prison reportedly died of anemia.

At the CERMICOL youth prison in Delmas, where women are currently being held after their prison in Cabaret was taken over by armed gangs, the number of prisoners is currently 400 percent higher than capacity. The prison was built to hold only 60 inmates, human rights activists say.

The UN also said in its report that between April 1 and June 30, at least 1,379 people were killed or injured in Haiti and another 428 were kidnapped. Nearly 600,000 people remain displaced by armed gangs. Although the figures represent a 44% drop in killings and shootings and a 2% drop in kidnappings compared to the previous quarter, attacks by armed groups continue, according to the UN. In recent weeks, several communities bordering Port-au-Prince have come under increasing attack by armed gangs.