Legal News

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.The U.S.-based Rural Justice Center conducted a survey of 1,000 prisoners at the penitentiary before the quake and determined that only about 2 percent should have actually been in prison. Most of the rest had already been in custody longer than the sentence for the crimes they were detained for. Or they were held without adequate justification in the first place.