It was the third funeral service for National Penitentiary inmates organized by Port-au-Prince chief prosecutor Danton Leger since April. It came a day after The Associated Press published an exclusive report on record overcrowding and appalling conditions inside Haiti's biggest lockup.

Recurrent shortages of food and medicine as well as infectious diseases that flourish in packed Haitian prisons and jails have led to an upsurge in malnutrition-related illnesses and other preventable diseases. The large majority of the country's 11,000 inmates haven't been convicted of anything and wait years for a court date.

How bad are the conditions?

Inmates at the National Penitentiary and other lockups are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in cellblocks so overcrowded they have to sleep in makeshift hammocks suspended from the ceiling or squeeze into shared bunks. New arrivals jostle for space on filthy floors where inmates on lockdown 22 hours a day are forced to defecate into plastic bags in the absence of latrines.

What do prison authorities say?

Prison authorities say they try their best to meet inmates’ needs, but receive insufficient funds from the state to buy food and cooking fuel, leading to deadly cases of malnutrition-related ailments such as thiamine deficiency and anemia.

The prison is operating at 454% of capacity. It's the most overcrowded prison system in the world (Phillippines is second, operating at 314% capacity.) The Red Cross says:

"It's a permanent struggle just to keep them (Haitian prisoners) alive,"

The cause (other than Haiti has been the poorest country in the Americas for years, although Venezuela may take that title soon)

®ampant corruption, as judges, prosecu