La Jornada's Pedro Miguel on Mexico's Most Vulnerable: Its Prisoners Pedro Miguel - La Jornada
go to original November 7, 2013

At least half of the country's prisoners are innocent: accused without evidence, paying for the crimes of others, says Alberto Patishtán. With his history of over 13 years of false accusations, flawed judgments and abuse in prison, he knows what he’s talking about. The Tzotzil teacher is referring to the systematic and structural violations of laws and procedures which are being committed within the intricacies of the penal system. To the “manufactured” culprits such as Patishtán, must be added the very diverse group of those in prison as a result of unfair or stupid laws: the man who stole a loaf of bread, the woman who had an abortion, the teenager who briefly experimented with marijuana.

What the innocent, those accused of crimes or technically guilty of crimes that should not be crimes have in common is their status as prisoners. They make up the most vulnerable sector of the country’s population; more than women, more than the indigenous peoples, more than disabled people, more than migrants, more than exploited children or street children, more than the malnourished. Those groups, unlike the prison population, can generate empathy and from there create bonds of solidarity and action to change their circumstances. Without wanting to ignore the dreadful deficiencies in civilization which we still display, it is clear that in recent decades there has been much work, and more than a little progress, in the fight against misogyny, racism, homophobia, exclusion and discrimination in general.

With prisoners it is different.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Amanda Moody

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