The Problem with Latin America’s Prison Boom
Governments are building massive facilities to contain a growing inmate population, but the strategy could backfire.
This article is adapted from AQ's special report on Latin America's space race RIO DE JANEIRO—Smoke rose over the prison walls in Tuxpan, Veracruz, before dawn last August. Inmates had turned on Grupo Sombra, a Mexican criminal group accused of squeezing them and their families for protection money. The fight lasted 12 hours. Seven inmates died, 11 were injured, and soldiers eventually retook the building. Tuxpan held 778 people in a facility built for 735. Crowded, but unremarkable by regional standards. The riot was not about space. It was about who ran the prison. Across...
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