Sunday, October 16, 2011

Jailhouse Mayhem

Twenty people were killed in a Matamoros facility where 40 inmates escaped last year. This is, I believe, at least the fifth time since 2009 that 15 or more people were killed in a jailhouse riot. The others were in Gómez Palacio, Durango, and Juárez twice. I think there was also a Tijuana riot that killed 15 or 20 in 2007 or 2008. In other words, this is not a new problem, but no one seems particularly interested in addressing it.

2 comments:

Richard said...

At least the one here in Mazatlan (with "only" 17 or so killed)a year ago in June seemed designed to cover the murder of rival "cartel" members, and was just written off as such. Hard to build sympathy for dead hitmen.

But you're right that prison reforms are being overlooked... like a lot of justice reforms stinted by the over-emphasis on policing and militarization.

pc said...

I'd forgotten about that one. Surely a few more in there too. Yeah I think that's the issue, people dont really care when it's inmates dying, despite the fact that the dysfunctional jails are akin to a leaky hull.