| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2009 
Mexico Pushes for Penal Changes
 Nacha Cattan - The News
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| | Mayor Marcelo Ebrard promised to overhaul and expand city prisons over one year ago, but lawmakers say few advances have been made | |
Mexico City's human rights commissioner will present a bill next week to regulate overcrowded prisons after various warnings of abuse at city jails have been ignored, he said Wednesday.
Emilio Alvarez Icaza, who heads the Mexico City Human Rights Commission, said the bill he plans to present April 21 will pressure the city government to address deplorable conditions at penitentiaries after dozens of reports, recommendations, and negotiations to the city have failed to produce results. "On the contrary, things are worse," Alvarez Icaza said.
He reiterated his concerns that about 40,000 prisoners occupy jails meant for half that number. He repeated a longstanding complaint that many sections of Mexico City prisons are "self-governing" - in other words, inmates in collusion with corrupt guards charge other cellmates for food and water. Alvarez Icaza said that some cells built for four people house close to 50 inmates.
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard promised to overhaul and expand city prisons over one year ago, but lawmakers say few advances have been made. "We are not going to release another report because that only continues to document the ignominy," Alvarez Icaza said. New laws, he said, might force a turnaround of human rights abuses and torture at city jails. |
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