“Fighting for the law, against the penitentiary system, it’s like fighting a monster.” Decided of her conviction is the wife of an incarcerated person currently confined in Centro Varonil de Seguridad Penitenciaria I (CEVASEP I), just north of Mexico City. Her husband, falsely accused of kidnaping, has been serving his sentence since 2012. Since then, she has been messenger, provider, and defender.
During the pandemic, she has been working on a formal report to denounce the torture her husband suffered by state agents involved in his detention, and, more than ever, looking after his health. “It's that they don’t eat well, that there could be infected people, that proper healthcare is simply not available. The worry never goes away.” Her husband’s sentence is 170 years [The standard sentence for kidnaping in Mexico is 40-80 years].
In Mexico, the penitentiary system is a symbol not of justice, but of state violence. Since the beginning of the War on Drugs, the prison population in Mexico has increased by nearly 50,000 people. Abbreviated proceedings, human rights abuses, and fabricated crimes mark a generation of people deprived of liberty. Their right to health and wellbeing depend on the conditions of their imprisonment and now, the management of the pandemic. Combined, a discriminatory circumstance that has much to do with how much money you have, where you are incarcerated, and how often your family visits.
