If international minimum standards of about four square metres for

every prisoner were met, the National Penitentiary would hold a little

more than 400 inmates. On the day Maclean’s visits the prison, there

are 3,331 men jailed inside. Most, at least 90 per cent, have not had a

trial. They are held under the euphemistic term "preventative

detention," and because of a lack of judges, proper evidence, and even

vehicles to transport them to court, it is unlikely many will be tried

any time soon.

"People sleep on top of people in here," one prisoner says through

the bars of a bathroom-sized cell that holds 43 people. Most are

standing. Others have fashioned hammocks out of scraps of cloth and

have suspended themselves from the bars of the cell’s high window,

where they can get more light and air…

Here is more. And that is not all:

There is a punishment cell, perhaps four feet tall, where no one can

stand. The punishment cell is crowded, but less so than other cells,

and some inmates prefer it. "You have people who do things wrong just

so they have a place to lie down or to be safe from gangs," Cadet says.

Here is a video about recent food riots in Haiti, and no those are not in the prisons.