Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – The Mexican city of Acapulco is hosting a National Meeting on Pastoral Care in Prisons which opens today at the city's new Cathedral dedicated to Christ the King. A report sent to Fides from the archdiocese of Mexico (Mexico City) says the meeting, which will last until Friday 18 June, is expected to draw hundreds of Catholics who devote themselves to the mission of sharing the Gospel and human warmth with persons living the traumatic experience of prison. The report says that in the past ten years more than one million Mexicans have experienced prison confinement and the lifelong trauma it brings. Presently there are some 220,000 detainees in the prisons of Mexico, 40,000 in penitentiaries in Mexico City alone.
There is concern for the fact that the country's political policy makers totally disregard prisons and centres of rehabilitation (CERESOS). For the Federal government it is easier to promote policies connected with less important, even marginal matters, but which win more popularity, and thus avoid the more complex and deep lying issues such as life in an overcrowded corruption ruled prison. The collapse of Mexico's prison system appears to be producing more delinquency and hence a higher crime rate.
The report from the archdiocese quotes a well known prison expert, Dr Alfonso Quiroz Quarona, who said: “In prisons we have people who should not be there at all and others who should never be allowed to leave. This happens because our administration of justice is so faulty. Every day we see more culprits created, and the prisons are full of innocent victims of the 'crime' of 'crimes' poverty”.
The archdiocese says the authorities should listen to the experts and act accordingly: for example, minor offenders could do some alternative punishment rather than prison, such as working for the community; “drug courts” need to be set up since many crimes are committed in situations of dependence, not intentionally, and the punishment could be a period of time at a detoxication centre. However, first and foremost it is urgently necessary to provide more jobs and more opportunities for education, because at the moment, as one young prisoner remarked, " In Mexico City it's easier to get a gun than a scholarship ". (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 14/06/2010)
