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| Mexico Looks to Fix Prison System |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/09/2002 |
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Mexico state officials unveiled plans recently for the country's first private prisons to relieve the government's overcrowded jails. Several U.S. companies and one French firm have expressed interest in the $110 million project to build and operate four jails in the state, officials said at a meeting with foreign correspondents. Bidding was expected to begin in three weeks. The state's 21 penitentiaries are busting at the seams. Some house as many as a dozen inmates in cells built for three, said Evangelina Lara Alcantara, director of the state prison system. Mexico state borders Mexico City, and 89 percent of its prisoners come from the capital. Human rights officials complain about corruption within Mexico's jails, where officers and gang leaders are allegedly in cahoots and prisoners with little clout are forced to live in deplorable conditions. The new facilities will be built to house 4,500 low risk inmates. About 70 percent of the state's current prison population is serving time for robbery, Alcantara said. Officials visited private prisons in France, Chile, and the U.S. states of Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona before drafting their plans. U.S. security firms such as Cornell, Wackenhut Corp. and Correction Corporation of America have expressed interest in the project, as well as the French construction company Bouygues, Alcantara said. |
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