Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HERMOSILLO79
2006-02-25 01:34:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Hermosillo
Cable title:  

PRISON CONDITIONS IN SONORA: JUST AS BAD AS ALWAYS, ONLY

Tags:  CASC PGOV ASEC ALOW MX 
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VZCZCXRO8683
PP RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHHO #0079/01 0560134
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 250134Z FEB 06
FM AMCONSUL HERMOSILLO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1296
INFO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 0379
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHHO/AMCONSUL HERMOSILLO 1660
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HERMOSILLO 000079 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/MEX, EMBASSY MEXICO FOR MCCA DONAHUE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CASC PGOV ASEC ALOW MX
SUBJECT: PRISON CONDITIONS IN SONORA: JUST AS BAD AS ALWAYS, ONLY
MORE PUBLICLY SO

REF: A) HERMOSILLO 0024, B) HERMOSILLO 0064

HERMOSILLO 00000079 001.2 OF 002


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HERMOSILLO 000079

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/MEX, EMBASSY MEXICO FOR MCCA DONAHUE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CASC PGOV ASEC ALOW MX
SUBJECT: PRISON CONDITIONS IN SONORA: JUST AS BAD AS ALWAYS, ONLY
MORE PUBLICLY SO

REF: A) HERMOSILLO 0024, B) HERMOSILLO 0064

HERMOSILLO 00000079 001.2 OF 002



1. (U) SUMMARY: After the prison break of January 15 in
Hermosillo (Ref A),Governor Eduardo Bours Castelo fired top
management and ordered a review of the entire state prison
system. The investigation uncovered serious irregularities in
15 of the 16 prisons in Sonora. As a recent visit by Consulate
staff also showed, the response to the prison break, while
exposing existing problems, has also created some new variations
on old ones. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) Although Sonora calls its prisons CERESOs ("Centros
de Readapcion Social," or Centers for Social Readaption),the
state has never had the resources to care adequately for even
the basic needs of many prisoners, let alone their social
re-adaptation. Riots, escapes, overcrowding, crime, and lack of
adequate sanitation and nutrition have long been issues of
concern. According to local media reports, 15 of the 16 state
prisons have "serious irregularities." Current capacity is for
6,500 prisoners, yet 14,000 people are behind bars. In some
prisons, as many as 16 people share cells designed for three.
Thirteen of the facilities do not have adequate sanitation. In
addition, treatment for tuberculosis is inadequate or, in some
cases, such as the prison in Ciudad Obregon, entirely lacking.
Treatment for AIDS is largely non-existent, as well. Most
prisons do not have separate facilities for the mentally ill.
The kitchens serve the prisoners their meals (often no more than
beans) in recycled cans or jars and do not provide eating
utensils.


3. (SBU) Consular officials met with the former State Director,
Eusebio Pillado Hernandez, on January 16, 2006 (Ref A). He
described the prisons of Sonora as a "disgrace." Some of his
plans before he was fired had included the separation of federal
prisoners from state ones, the separation of violent and
non-violent offenders, the issuance of uniforms, the
installation of security cameras, and the blocking of cell phone
signals from inside the prison. He was able to institute a
system of fingerprinting and photographing visitors, although it

was not in use during ConOff and ConAsst's last visit in late
January. Pillado Hernandez said the biggest problem regarding
the prisons overall is lack of health care.


4. (SBU) When consulate staff visited CERESO 1 in Hermosillo on
January 28th, they found an overwhelmed, frightened
administration. Several people approached and whispered, "We
have problems." Indeed, with 150 guards (on three shifts of 50
each) to guard more than 4,000 prisoners, how could they not?
The interim director, Zenaida Zapien Nunez, murmured that she
hoped to leave the job as soon as possible. (Prisoners
statewide have an informal pact to murder any prison director if
they get the opportunity, according to Pillado Hernandez.)


5. (U) Press attention has been sustained and highly
critical. The story has just recently fallen off the front
pages of the papers, perhaps only because its replacement
involves a high-speed shootout between rival drug gangs, whose
gunmen included former state policemen, and a series of related
incidents.


6. (U) Post currently has 12 prisoners in the facility.
The ACS section received calls from two USCit prisoners shortly
after the escape. Although state policemen have replaced the
entire guard staff in an effort to enhance security and prevent
corruption, three new state police guards allegedly assaulted
and robbed a USCit prisoner of 600 pesos (Ref B). In an attempt
to cover up their misdeeds, according to the prisoner, they then
variously claimed they'd found heroin, a pill, and a twelve-inch
homemade knife that belonged to him. He had been placed in a
"punishment cell" with approximately 15 other men. The cell
lacked bathroom facilities; they used plastic bags in the corner
to contain their waste. After the intervention of ConOff and
ConAsst, the police commandant agreed to return him to his old
cell and expunge the charges. The prisoner had already paid
1,000 pesos to the old guard force for the right to share the
cell with five others. He decided not to file a formal
complaint because he feared revenge. COMMENT: ConOff and
ConAsst not only found the USCit's story credible but, except
for the new wrinkle of the allegedly improved guard force,
unremarkable. END COMMENT.


7. (SBU) Part of the prison problem, according to a source
close to the police, is that an informal, powerful brotherhood
controls the prison system, effectively closing it to outsiders.
Directors hopscotch from prison to prison, recycling the same
ideas that they had failed to implement in their last jobs.
While the governor had reached outside the system with the
appointment of Pillado Hernandez, he has returned to it with his
replacement, Raul Chavez Acosta, a former investigator with the

HERMOSILLO 00000079 002.2 OF 002


state attorney general's office.


8. (U) Lack of funding compounds the problem. Both federal and
state prisoners are held in the same system, yet currently the
federal government only pays about 25% of the daily cost for
each federal prisoner, although it had pledged to pay about 40%.
Sonora has about 6,000 federal prisoners in its charge, of
which nearly 2,000 are in CERESO 1 in Hermosillo. As noted
above, Sonora's prisons also have about 7,500 more people than
they are designed for.


9. (SBU) ACS personnel will continue to monitor the well being
of USCit prisoners closely. COMMENT: As long as such prison
essentials such as adequate health care, uniforms, and security
cameras remain the untenable dreams of prison officials,
consulate personnel will be pessimistic that reform will come
soon to the prisons of Sonora. END COMMENT.
CLARKE