Mexico’s Women’s Prisons Suffer Neglect and Organized Crime

Edited by Ivan Martínez
2015-03-31 13:45:44

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Mexico City, March 31 (teleSUR-RHC) Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) published a damning report on Sunday, outlining horrid conditions and corruption in most of Mexico’s 102 women’s detention centers.

The report titled “Special Report on Women Deprived of Liberty in Detention Centers in Mexico,” outlines rampant human rights abuses and violations in at least 77 of the prisons, declaring the existence of government control and administration in many of them.

The report, carried out between February and March of 2014, with 11,107 female inmates, exposes widespread and common sexual abuse; poor material conditions; failure in providing adequate services; inequality between men's and women areas; poor nutrition; maltreatment; and overpopulation and overcrowding.

According to the CNDH, the team also found that organized crime or mafias often controlled the administration of facilities as well as the distribution of basic services to the population, calling the prisons “self-governed.”

However in this self-governance unequal treatment was applied with some inmates receiving privileges and luxuries including kitchen ware and even domestic animals or pets. The autonomous government agency, formed 25 years ago, found that most of the facilities with the highest number of violations were found in the south-western state of Guerrero.

The commission denounced the Mexican state for not adequately fulfilling its obligation to “take measures to guarantee that women in its custody enjoy all the rights that correspond to inmates.” According to the report the commission has made 22 recommendations, sent to corresponding authorities, so that effective measures can be taken and applied.



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