Seychelles
The Seychelles are an archipelago consisting of 115 islands, most of which are uninhabited. 98% of the population (of less than 100,000) live on the so-called inland islands, i.e. a group of 42 islands comprising about half of the land area of the country.
Demographically, the Seychelles are an inhomogeneous ex-slaveholder society with extreme income disparity and - in recent years - the highest imprisonment rate in the world. The decisive factor for this unusual prison rate was not the presence of Somali pirates in Seychelles prisons, but the unresolved drug policy.
After the release of 150 drug related prisoners at the end of 2016, Seychelles lost their position as the world's leading incarceration nation to the USA.
- 2018 - The current rate at the beginning of March 2018 is 448 per 100,000 inhabitants (which Seychelles does not have: estimated national population of 96,720).
- 2017 - The Seychelles has at least 1,000 heroin users, and 2.3% of the 90,000 population are intravenous drug users according to the UN; among the worst rates in the world. The addicts have only appeared in recent years, says Shah. One reason could be the fact that the archipelago lies on the trafficking routes .
- 2016 November - Seychelles judiciary releases 150 drug offenders as new law comes into effect. ... "For example the indicative minimum for aggravated manufacture, importation or trafficking in a class A drug like heroin, the most serious offence is 20 years and the maximum is life while the indicative minimum for aggravated cultivation of a class B drug like cannabis is eight years and the maximum is 20 years,” she said. Traffickers can now be prosecuted for any quantity of drugs, including fake ones, even when those have been manipulated to keep them below the statutory threshold. According to the Seychelles prison services there are currently nearly 80 convicts -- 59 men and 19 women -- serving sentences for drug-related offences out of over 400 prisoners. Twenty-nine men are also being remanded in relation to drug offences.
- 2016 - American sisters found dead in $1,800-a-night Seychelles villa had fluid on their lungs often linked to drug overdoses, authorities say - as locals tell of 'cocaine ... The sisters pictured in a September 19 photo while on vacation in Seychelles. .... ' It is a big problem here and lots of tourists taken the drug.
- 2015 On a visit to the Takamaka Rum distillery and the Morne Blanc tea factory, locals tell us they relish their life on an idyllic island but lament the new social problems caused by the rise in drug and alcohol abuse. According to the UN, this tiny island has some of the worst heroin addiction statistics in the world.
- Since 2014, the Seychelles have the world's highest rate of imprisonment with (in 2014) 799 per 100,000 inhabitants. With only around 90,000 inhabitants, the islands counted 735 prisoners in 3 prisons, 8% of whom were women.
(When the British gained control of the islands during the Napoleonic Wars, they allowed the French upper class to retain their land. Both the French and British settlers used enslaved Africans, and although the British prohibited slavery in 1835, African workers continued to come. Thus the Gran blan ("big whites") of French origin dominated economic and political life. The British administration employed Indians on indentured servitude to the same degree as in Mauritius resulting in a small Indian population. The Indians, like a similar minority of Chinese, were confined to a merchant class.)
- US Dept of State: Prison conditions were harsh due to overcrowding. Prisoners at Montagne Posee Prison alleged that a fellow inmate’s death resulted from physical abuse. - Physical Conditions:
- "Prison conditions and overcrowding in Montagne Posee Prison, the main prison, significantly improved during the year. On June 1, implementation of the Misuse of Drugs Act decriminalized possession of small amounts of cannabis. Consequently, authorities released approximately 160 prisoners because their convictions were overturned. No remand detainees, however, were released based on this change. ..On March 21, the newspaper Seychelles Nation reported the death of Montagne Posee Prison inmate Robert Banane. Prison officials initially stated that Banane died of a fall but later stated that he was shot. Sixty fellow inmates signed a letter sent to weekly newspaper Le Seychellois Hebdo stating Banane died while fighting for the right of inmates to be treated humanely.-...An ombudsman may make recommendations to the National Assembly and the president to improve conditions for prisoners and detainees but had no authority to enforce such recommendations. Although the ombudsman is required to issue an annual report on inmate complaints and on investigations into human rights abuses and corruption, she did not do so for at least three years."