Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - The Pastoral of the Mexican Episcopal Conference (EMC) prisons has announced that the work of the representatives of the Catholic Church in prisons is increasingly difficult for the situation that exists within the prisons and the fear in which pastoral operators live when they denounce corruption, torture, overcrowding and mistreatment by the authorities. If any of the pastoral operators file a complaint, he is "punished" by forbidding access to or favoring other religions or beliefs (such as the destructive Santa Muerte). Where there are more prisoners, the organization of crime is greater, this is why a change in prison policy is urgently needed, underlined the director of the Pastoral Commission of the prisons of the EMC, Pedro Arellano.
According to information sent to Fides by the Archdiocese of Mexico, Arellano, on the eve of the 33rd National Meeting of prison ministry, to be held from July 18 to 22 in Villa Hermosa, Tabasco, cited the case of a Bishop who was forbidden to enter a State prison because, according to Arellano, he had dared to say that zoo animals were fed better than prisoners in his diocese. In response, the governor did not allow him to enter any prison for three years.
More than 1,000 pastoral prison operators enrolled at the Villa Hermosa meeting, and will analyze the reality of prisons under the slogan "Disciples in communion". "Unfortunately, prisons in Mexico are not rehabilitation centers or re-socialization of prisoners, but rather tend to be centers where crime increases", said Arellano.
The situation is more complicated today because "the characteristics of inmates have changed: now we have to tackle organized crime, drug cartels have taken over the prisons and continue to operate even from there, besides the problem of overcrowding, lack of facilities and lack of rehabilitation programs for the people deprived of liberty". Arellano underlined that the Catholic Church works a lot in 482 of the 489 prisons in the country, where there are more than 220 000 prisoners, and where more than 4000 pastoral operators carry out visits at least once a week; while "in those prisons where we have no presence, is only because the authorities have difficulties due to the fact of being maximum-security prisons". (EC) (Agenzia Fides 07/13/2011)
