Readings & Links

Related Reports Haiti a Year Later A Resurgence of Crime

RELATED REPORTS

• View FRONTLINE’s The Quake, which aired 11 weeks after the January 2010 earthquake. It offers never-before-seen footage of the moments after the quake, and asks, "What can be done now -- and who will do it?" In a section of the site titled “The Way Forward?,” aid experts say it’s time to break with the past and rethink how aid works. Also explore readings and links that cover Haiti’s history and politics and how to rebuild and remake Haiti.
• View three post-earthquake reports by NPR Planet Money’s Adam Davidson on international aid and the new economies emerging from the rubble: "Haiti: The Aid Dilemma," "The Economy of a Tent City" and "Solving the Tap-Tap Puzzle."

HAITI A YEAR LATER

• Watch PBS NewsHour online for ongoing coverage and Jeffrey Brown’s video dispatches from Haiti a year after the earthquake.
• In “Haiti Suffers Year of Crisis with Nobody in Charge,” Associated Press reporter Jonathan M. Katz provides a chronology of developments in Haiti since the earthquake, including the cholera outbreak threatening the nation and the tumultuous presidential election that took place in November.
• This report by Mac McClelland in Mother Jones details the hellish conditions of Haiti’s tent cities, including the harrowing accounts of women who have been subjected to extraordinary violence and rape. The publication also features deep coverage of the complexities of aid and the nation's disaster profiteers.
• In The New York Times, Deborah Sontag depicts not only the haunting, but also hopeful stories of Haitians struggling to rebuild their lives. See profiles of some of these individuals in this multimedia graphic. You can also explore The New York Times’ Haiti portal for ongoing coverage, including videos and interactive features.
• “In Haiti people’s spirits never really die,” writes Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat in The New Yorker. Her personal reflections on Haiti one year after the earthquake provide a melancholic yet hopeful view of the country’s future. You can also explore a year of Haiti coverage in The New Yorker here.

A PRISON BREAK AND RESURGENCE OF CRIME

• In “The Ballad of a Haiti Jail,” published in the Daily Mail, FRONTLINE producer Dan Reed takes you inside Haiti’s National Penitentiary, known as the Titanic, to reveal how the estimated 4,500 prisoners who escaped now threaten the country in the absence of rule of law. You can also read FRONTLINE’s interview with Reed about the making of Battle for Haiti.
• Also see New York Times photographer Damon Winter’s arresting photos of life inside the Titantic. Below the post, the Lens Blog also features other photographic coverage of the earthquake.
• In this February 2010 report, The Washington Post covered some of the obstacles confronting Haiti’s criminal justice system following the earthquake. And this follow-up piece looks at the resurgence of violence and crime in Haiti associated with escaped criminals.
• Amnesty International released a report in January 2011 documenting the high risk of sexual violence for women and girls living in the many makeshift tent cities of Port-au-Prince. Download the full report, “Aftershocks: Women Speak Out against Sexual Violence in Haiti’s Camps,” here [PDF].
• The United States Institute of Peace [USIP] has ongoing analysis on Haiti’s recovery post-conflict and disaster. Here, USIP highlights problems in rule of law, politics and violence in the country, and offers recommendations for improving community development, services, jobs and law enforcement. The brief, “The Rule of Law in Haiti after the Earthquake,” examines how Haiti has some, but not all of the resources needed to rebuild rule of law and reform its criminal justice system. Read the full report here [PDF].