Author(s)

Jacobo Herrera Rodríguez^*, Jesica Vega Zayas, Juan Antonio Rodríguez González

Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico.

This work presents results of a comparative study between penitentiary treatment for men and women in Mexico. Firstly, a documental review was made to estimate the differences in operation between men’s and women’s penitentiaries in Mexico; right away, we expose reactions of a focus group integrated by penitentiary personnel working in a women’s correctional center. It was found that there exists a differentiated treatment between men and women in prison that does not seem naturally justified, nor juridically pertinent. Starting from the administration, a distinct treatment persists between male and female inmates. Even if men correctional facilities have been improving recently, omissions, anti-constitutional practices and misstatements are still often seen in women correctional centers. Besides this, a comparative discourse is maintained among correctional officers, being more negative for those who work in women’s penitentiaries, and transmitting a generalized feeling of abandon due to the lack of government support; correctional officers also believe that the main expressions of government behavior to inmates are those that show power and authority and very little that of balanced exchanges.

Penitentiary-Treatment, Correctional Centers, Inmates, Convicted Women, Mexico’s Jails System, Prisons

Rodríguez, J. , Zayas, J. and González, J. (2019) Penitentiary Treatment in Mexico: A Comparison between Men’s and Women’s Situation. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 7, 13-26. doi: 10.4236/jss.2019.72002.