News

‘Graduations from Hell': a documentary on the Mexican prison system crisis

After we posed the question Why Aren’t We Talking About Mexican Prisons? in a previous post, it seemed appropriate to revisit the issue after a documentary series aired on the new open broadcast channel in Mexico, Imagen Televisión, showed once again how little media attention, if any, is paid to the prison system.

Imagen Televisión began broadcasting at the end of 2016 as an alternative to the so-called television duopoly held by predominant companies Televisa and TV Azteca.

The documentary series, hosted by renowned journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva, is titled “Graduaciones del Infierno” or “Graduations from Hell,” a reference to how inmates receive a lot of criminal training in prison. It also revealed the way in which staff at Mexico City’s prisons are involved in corrupt activities, like selling or renting mobile phones to inmates, who then use the devices to commit extortion.

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