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2. Contonou Civil Prison, Benin
Benin is a small country in West Africa next to Togo and Nigeria. Cotonou’s facility has about 2,400 men, women, and children living in an area built to hold no more than 400. It is so overcrowded, some prisoners sleep in shifts, and others have died from suffocation while sleeping. Over 90 percent of the prisoners are awaiting trial, a process that takes several years because of backlog in the judicial system. Conditions at the prison are not intentional, the republic has limited funds to care for the inmates. Despite international assistance, many prisoners still die from preventable diseases.
