Prison Overcrowding in Latin America

Gang leaders are demanding Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry step down from office, following a coordinated jailbreak of two prisons at the weekend which saw more than 3,800 inmates escape. The government called a 72-hour state of emergency and a night curfew on Sunday. According to AP, gangs have attacked government infrastructure including police stations and the main airport. At least nine people are reported killed.

It has now been seven years since Haiti held an election. Henry was meant to hand over power to the next elected officials on February 7, but said he would postpone the deadline for new elections until security in the country was restored.

Henry traveled to Kenya last week to seek support from a proposed UN-backed security mission and is reported to still be out of the country.

Data from the World Prison Brief shows that Haiti's prisons are currently the most overcrowded of the Latin America region, running at an occupancy level of four and a half times its official capacity (454 percent). This issue is not restricted to the island nation alone, however. Four other countries on the continent have a prison population more than twice the capacity of their prisons: Peru (229 percent occupancy), El Salvador (237 percent), Bolivia (264 percent), Guatemala (293 percent).