There are 130 officers, many of them former military men who are badly paid, to guard the inmates in the entire prison system. Larose said he needs twice that number. At Penitentier National, only the six guards in the watch towers carry weapons. During his walk, Larose snapped at a couple of naked male prisoners taking a bath in the courtyard. He wanted them to face the wall.
Inmates bathe in the open, picking water from a bucket and pouring it over their heads.
Each cell block has a courtyard, with names like Bois Verna, Titanic, Brik, Quartier Rok. Titanic is a three-story unpainted building that stands in stark contrast to the rest of the old walls. It is where authorities keep the most dangerous inmates, mostly drug dealers, many of them Colombians who have taken advantage of Haiti's political instability to transfer cocaine to the United States, mainly through mules or on ships that dock at the Miami River. The courtyards are paved now. Before, prisoners used the rocks in the yard to stone the guards.