29622: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Prison Break (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 5 (AP) -- As many as 30 inmates escaped through a
small hole in a prison wall in the latest of several breakouts from Haiti's
largest penitentiary, police said Tuesday.
   Witnesses told local media that prisoners waited for a police patrol to
pass before slipping through a 20-inch hole and fleeing the overcrowded
National Penitentiary during the day on Monday, just blocks from Haiti's
National Palace.
   Police quickly cordoned off the area and searched houses for the
inmates. It wasn't immediately clear how many escaped, but officials said
up to 30 prisoners may be missing.
   Police Inspector General Fritz Jean told reporters the escape was under
investigation. Private radio station Kiskeya reported that four prison
guards were arrested on suspicion of involvement.
   Police spokesman Frantz Lerebours declined to take questions when
reached by phone, saying senior authorities were meeting to discuss the
escape.
   In July, 26 Haitian convicts deported from the United States escaped
from a holding cell at the National Penitentiary.
   In February 2005, nearly 500 prisoners escaped from the same prison in a
jail break allegedly aided by corrupt guards who unlocked the doors and
allowed inmates to flee.
   A year earlier, hundreds of prisoners escaped amid the chaos of a revolt
that toppled former president Jean Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004.
   The prison was built nearly 100 years ago to house 800 prisoners but
reportedly holds twice that number, many of whom have languished in squalor
for years while awaiting resolution of their cases.
   When President Rene Preval took the oath of office in May, inmates
rioted and gathered on the prison roof where they held aloft signs
demanding their freedom.