Putting criminals in jail might seem like a good way to fight crime, but in Mexico even that is debatable.

The country’s prisons are infested with internal crime, drug use, bad treatment and corruption.

Inmates have to depend on relatives to bring them food, while prison administrators skim funds destined for inmate care.

A few years ago, the director of a women’s prison was utilizing female inmates as prostitutes in men’s prisons.

Hey, but at least if the criminals are in the hoosegow, they can’t endanger people on the outside, right?

Not necessarily. In Mexico imprisoned drug barons have been known to run their cartels from behind bars.

But this year, the state of Mexican incarceration reached a new low. It was discovered that prisoners were leaving a certain ”correctional institution” to commit murders, then returning for security. The hoosegow had become their "safe house". And this was apparently done with the collusion of prison authorities.

Read more about it here in my article on Mexidata.info .