Visiting Day

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In a culture as family-oriented as Mexico’s, it should probably come as no surprise that the most important day of the week for Mexican prisoners is the Sunday visiting day. Between Tuesdays and Saturdays, visitors are allowed to come into the prison between 9am and 5pm but must stay confined to the first floor of each cell-house. But on Sundays, the prison administration takes these visits to an entirely different level by organizing a grand event - almost like a carnival - complete with mariachi dancing, lucha libre fighting, and even moonwalks for children.

Last weekend, we were able to experience this visiting day celebration for the first time. Being accustomed to the visitation policies in American prisons, I was blown away by the amount of freedom given to the inmates and visitors as well as the sheer magnitude of the event. In American prisons, pre-approved visitors are allowed to see their loved ones for a maximum of one hour and must stay in a secure room with surveillance cameras and armed guards. Because visitors are one of the main sources of contraband in American prisons, there is typically a no-touch policy in the visitation rooms as well.

But in CERESO II, such rules were few and far between. While all visitors have to go through a quick finger-print check and pat-down, once they get inside the prison, they can do pretty much anything they want, from cuddling and making out with their boyfriends and girlfriends to having a family picnic in the courtyard. Most visitors also bring bags full of food and toiletries and I’m pretty sure I even smelled a certain green plant that is illegal in the United States being smoked in one of the cell-houses.

Of course, these visitation days are not always happy occasions for everybody. While some inmates receive visitors on a weekly, and sometimes even daily, basis, others (such as our character, Marcos) have not received a visitor in years. For them, seeing other families reunite every Sunday is likely a painful reminder of the lack of support that they receive from their own friends and family.

As for which policy is better, I would have to side with the Americans on this one. Considering that there have been a number of prison riots in Mexico over the past three months (including one in Zacatecas in which which 53 inmates escaped), permitting 1,500 visitors to roam free inside the prison seems to me to be a bit of a security hazard. Permitting conjugal visits in the prison to keep families intact is one thing, but allowing visitors to come with bags potentially filled with dangerous weapons is quite another. I, for one, did not feel safe at all.

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Photos

Filming the visiting line
Approximately 1,500 visitors come to CERESO II every Sunday, literally doubling the number of people inside the prison.

Ballet Folklorico
Mariachi dancers showing us their best moves.