Prison crisis: the escape of more than 400 prisoners in Haiti kills at least 25 | International

An escape of more than 400 prisoners last Thursday caused the death of 25 people, including the director of the prison located on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince (Haiti), authorities announced on Friday. Among the dead were ordinary citizens “who were killed by the prisoners during their escape,” authorities added.

“Before yesterday’s incident, there were 1,542 inmates at Croix-des-Bouquets prison. The count made this Friday morning shows us that there are 1,125, “announced Frantz Exantus, Secretary of State for Communication, at a press conference.” Twenty-five people died, including six prisoners and Inspector Paul Hector Joseph, who was in charge of the prison, ”added Exantus.

One of the escaped detainees who died was Arnel Joseph, one of Haiti’s main gang leaders, shot dead during a police check 120 kilometers north of Croix-des-Bouquets prison on Friday. “Arnel Joseph died attacking a police patrol which had stopped the motorcycle he was riding on. The police responded and Arnel Joseph died, ”Exantus explained.

Accused of being the head of one of Haiti’s main criminal networks, Joseph was arrested in July 2019. Josehp had tried, unsuccessfully, to escape for the first time from Croix-des prison. -Bouquets in July 2020, an escape he had announced through a video posted on social networks a few days earlier. Joseph, who was serving a sentence for murder, had already escaped twice from another prison in Port-au-Prince in 2010 and 2017.

Opened in 2012, the high security prison of Croix-des-Bouquets, built with Canadian funds, has a maximum capacity of 872 inmates, while on Thursday, before the escape, the population was almost double.