People being held in prisons in Haiti are dying of starvation in subhuman conditions according to the UN’s Designated Expert on the human rights situation in the Caribbean island nation, William O'Neill.

Haiti is facing an increasingly perilous security crisis as gangs compete to control the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas, impacting an already dysfunctional justice system.

Prisons are severely overcrowded, and some detainees can wait for years to be tried for minor offences, including the theft of chickens or shoes.

Daniel Dickinson began by asking Mr. O’Neill to describe the conditions he has witnessed in Haitian prisons.