Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 27 March 2019
Mexico's last penal colony starts new life as nature center

By REBECCA BLACKWELL made it less profitable.
ISLAS MARIAS, Mexico (AP) A further blow was the de-
— It's unclear if Islas Marias cision in 2006 during Mex-
ever really worked as a ico's drug war to turn the
penal colony: The remote colony into a regular prison
Mexican archipelago is holding as many as 8,000 to
battered regularly by hurri- 10,000 inmates. The "semi-
canes, and its ramshackle, freedom" the island once
often century-old installa- offered inmates, and the
tions are sprinkled with the production schemes, suf-
ruins of failed "productive" fered under the influx. The
projects that once aimed overcrowded, under-fed
to make the prison popula- inmates rioted in 2013, kill-
tion self-sustaining. ing six people before ma-
Now, with the prison just rines regained control of
closed, the hurdles of dis- the island.
tance, weather and de- A final blow came this past
cayed infrastructure may October, when Hurricane
not make it easy for the Willa made a direct hit as
islands to prosper in their a Category 3 storm and
new role as a nature cen- caused about $100 million
ter and education camp A mural of Nelson Mandela, who spent many of his imprisoned years in an island prison in South in damages to the prison.
for children. Africa, adorns a gate in front of the dock where prison staff and inmates arrive in Navy boats to the Buildings can be seen
now closed Islas Maria penal colony located off Mexico's Pacific coast, at dawn Sunday, March
It's a rough, eight-hour 17, 2019. around the island with their
boat ride out to the islands, Associated Press roofs torn off.
which lie 70 miles (110 ki- When it closed in February,
lometers) off the Pacific that penal colonies could lievers in the penal colony. Officials say inmates also the penal colony housed
shores of Mexico's Nayarit earn their keep, and reform Some of his fellow prison brewed homemade liquor just 659 prisoners.
state. Appropriately for a inmates through clean liv- employees even want to out of fermented fruit and One of the most charm-
place where most of the ing, ocean air and hard stay on and are trying to some tried to grow marijua- ing of the prison's features
few dozen prisoners who work. swing transfers to the En- na. The moonshine, known — that families, including
attempted to escape Bars and cells weren't nec- vironment Department, on the island as "turbo," led children, could come live
drowned, the Environment essary because the sur- which will now oversee the to a ban on the possession with some inmates — also
Department says it is think- rounding ocean effectively islands. of sugar by inmates, since it proved one of its most
ing about offering survival prevented escape. Islas "I think it's a pity that they accelerated the fermenta- costly burdens. And peo-
courses. Bird watching, Marias was the last of its have closed what could tion process. ple worried whether the
nature walks and arts pro- kind, the final of a half doz- have been a model prison," The prison was started as kids were getting a decent
grams are also planned. en island penal colonies Zedillo said. "They were self- a way to isolate and pun- childhood on the island
All that remains for now are that were scattered around supporting, they (inmates) ish political prisoners, such and questioned the cost
a few goats, some cattle Latin America. It was done were producing. They grew as striking workers and so- of providing schooling and
and once-domesticated in by high costs — almost vegetables. They had cat- cialists, and the inmates recreational facilities.
cats that roam the main $150 per day per inmate, tle, goats, pigs. There was a helped pay its way by "There are a lot of people in
island where thousands of far beyond what mainland fish farm and a salt works ... working on the salt flats or the non-prison population
prisoners once lived. prison costs — and by the the problem was political, at the shrimp farm. But in who deserve that funding,
The thick-walled remains increasing space available the authorities decided not its waning years, salt could to live a decent life," said
of an old salt-evaporation at mainland prisons as le- to continue as a penal col- be harvested from evapo- Francisco Garduno Yanez,
warehouse and the disused gal reforms reduced jail ony, and so little by little it ration ponds on the main- director of Mexican prisons
pools of a former shrimp populations. fell apart." land more cheaply, and who was assigned with the
farm are a mute testament Rogelio Zedillo, a former Prison official Marco Anto- transportation costs for the task of shutting down the
to the idea that Islas Marias employee in the island's le- nio Rugerio Estrada spent island's shrimp production penal colony.q
was founded on in 1905 — gal area, is one of the be- the past 31 years on the
main island, known as Ma-
ria Madre. He also is sad to
see the prison go.
"It was a very healthy life,"
Rugerio Estrada said. "We
started off every day in a
very beautiful environment,
and that allows you to see
life in a different way. You
wake up and say, 'I am in a
very pretty place,' and you
start to recognize yourself."
But it was far from a tropical
paradise for the inmates.
They weren't allowed to go
Weights made from cement lie scattered on the ground at an the island's beaches. They Actor Jorge Correa, who led social rehabilitation theater pro-
outdoor gym once used by prisoners at the now closed Morelos led a fairly regimented life, grams with inmates, performs a one-man play on addiction for
detention center during a media tour of the former Islas Ma- with designated areas, a group of visiting journalists inside a ruined salt processing fa-
rias penal colony located off Mexico's Pacific coast, Saturday, bunk beds in small houses cility during a media tour of the former Islas Marias penal colony
March 16, 2019. and 5 a.m. morning wake- located off Mexico's Pacific coast late Friday, March 15, 2019.
Associated Press up calls. Associated Press