06/08/11 – Representative Humberto Benítez Treviño, who is President of the Chamber of Deputy’s Justice Commission, announced that high profile inmates who are considered “highly dangerous” will be relocated to prisons in Islas Marías, a group of islands off the coast of the Pacific coast state of Nayarit. The representative first introduced this proposition in October of 2010. The group of inmates that will be relocated consist of criminals who have committed federal offenses, but have been serving their sentence in state prisons. According to Treviño, the commission has decided to take such action due to overcrowding in state prisons. Out of the 429 prisons that can be found throughout Mexico, 28% of them suffer from overpopulation. An estimate of about 23,000 inmates have been selected for relocation.
Treviño stressed how overcrowding in prisons has made social rehabilitation for inmates virtually impossible and effective. The Federal District has the worst overcrowding rate in the country with 88%, while Nayarit and the State of Mexico (Edomex) follow closely behind with rates of 80% and 78%, respectively. Six penitentiaries will be created to hold these “highly dangerous” inmates. Together they will become known as the Federal Penitentiary Complex of Islas Marías (Penitenciario Islas Marías los centros federales). According to the Diario Oficial de la Federación, two of these prisons will be made exclusively for those who have committed highly atrocious crimes like terrorism, kidnapping, arms trafficking, trafficking of illegal immigrants, and human organ trafficking.
Sources:
NTX/AMCM. “Gobierno federal reubicará reos a Islas Marías.” Informador. June 6, 2011.
