PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The U.S. government is planning to build two prisons in Haiti's countryside that will cost up to $10 million.
Carl Siebentritt is director of the Narcotics Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. He says the State Department will build a prison in each of the coastal towns of Petit Goave and Cabaret as part of an effort to reduce overcrowding in Haiti's prison system.
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The penitentiary in Petit Goave will replace one destroyed in 2004 following the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Since then more than 100 inmates have been held in a police station.
The prison in Cabaret will house women and help relieve crowding at a women's prison in the Port-au-Prince area.
Siebentritt made the announcement in an email Friday night to The Associated Press.