PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The skinny teenager appears nervous, and with reason: He is waiting for a tap on the shoulder that could send him back to the dismal prison where he spent four years without being charged or seeing a judge.
He is one of more than 5,000 prisoners who fled their cells after January’s devastating earthquake and are now being rounded up by Haitian police and returned to a system notorious for appalling conditions and delays.
Legal experts say the earthquake has given the country a chance to reform its judiciary, which has been the source of international condemnation for years. But the young man on the run, who insists he is innocent, is afraid any solution will come too late for him.
“I’d like to be able to go to them and just say, ‘You were wrong, let me be free,’ ” said the 19-year-old, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of his legal situation. “But I’m scared that they’ll just lock me up again.”
Justice Minister Paul Denis acknowledged the justice system is guilty of “extremely serious” human-rights violations and agreed the problem is particularly bad for juveniles. Authorities will seek to speed up the process in the future, he added, though no one has yet offered a formal plan for rebuilding the judiciary.
Still, Denis said the country is seeking to round up all the prisoners who were either released or escaped during the Jan. 12 earthquake under circumstances that remain murky.
There are conflicting accounts about what happened on the night of the earthquake. A guard, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity, said the prisoners began to riot and set fire to the building. The guards, faced with the choice of shooting or releasing them amid the chaos and aftershocks, chose to let them go.
The teen, who only gave AP his first name, Guy, supported the guard’s story.
U.N. officials say eight of the country’s 17 prisons were destroyed or damaged, and 60 percent of the 9,000 prisoners fled — including 300 considered very dangerous. Denis said that as of Wednesday about 160 of the 9,000 prisoners had been recaptured.
