Prison Has its Perks

DEPT. OF MEXICAN JUSTICE

Criminals run the Juarez jail and money can get you anything you want The nicest part of the prison is run by the Sinaloa Cartel. Inside the white stucco fortress are two restaurants, ahair salon, a store, carpentry workshops and even a cockfighting ring. The Sinaloa wing of the prison is overseen by a man the prisoners refer to as 'The Assassin," alleged to have killed at least 200 people.In Mexico, prisons run by criminals, often referred to as self-rule prisons, are on the rise. In a recent report by the National Human Rights Commission, the agency found self-rule in 37 percent of the country's prisons- up from 30 percent in 2009. With so many jails being run by inmates, it's not unusual for convicts to walk out the front door. Last year, in Mexico's largest jail break in history, 153 men filed out of a Nuevo Laredo prison, boarded a yellow school bus and othet vehicals in a cartel convoy and drove away. At the prison in Juarez, an inmate escaped after being carried out the front door in a piece of furniture. The guards never looked inside. -MELISSA DEL BOSQUEUnder a shaded portico, women chat with their husbands at picnic tables, eating snacks and drinking sodas as children run around the courtyard. Some children play video games. At a prison restaurant called "The Dwarf" (after the proprietor), I order a plate of beef flautas and a Coke. The owner and his wife prepare the food while their five-year-old daughter runs in and out of the kitchen. A TV on top of the refrigerator drones with a popular soap opera.With so many enemies on the outside, The Assassin is seldom seen roaming the prison. Bodyguards keep a close watch over the floor where he lives. The Assassin runs his section of the jail like a small- town mayor. He recently ordered the construction of a petting zoo with ducks, rabbits and goats for kids to play with on family days. He also instigated the planting of a garden plot with corn and beans.After lunch I tour the carpentry workshop. The barn-like room is stocked with wood and tools for furniture making. An older Mennonite man, serving time for transporting marijuana, plays dominoes at a card table with his wife and kids. I say "good afternoon" to a short, hunched man holding a broom and he nods back. Fm later told that he killed 20 women.

In Mexico, prisons run by criminals, often referred to as self-rule prisons, are on the rise. In a recent report by the National Human Rights Commission, the agency found self-rule in 37 percent of the country's prisons- up from 30 percent in 2009. With so many jails being run by inmates, it's not unusual for convicts to walk out the front door. Last year, in Mexico's largest jail break in history, 153 men filed out of a Nuevo Laredo prison, boarded a yellow school bus and othet vehicals in a cartel convoy and drove away. At the prison in Juarez, an inmate escaped after being carried out the front door in a piece of furniture. The guards never looked inside. -MELISSA DEL BOSQUE

Author: del Bosque, Melissa