Baja transfers 700 inmates to prison on island

State’s seeks to ease severe overcrowding

Por: Omar Millán 23 Octubre 2011 @ 2:55 pm
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TIJUANA – Authorities transferred Saturday some 140 more state prisoners to the federal prison located on an island in Pacific, off the coast of Nayarit.

Saturday’s transfer came a day after an attempted riot at the state prison in Mexicali, which was contained in about 30 minutes, according to Baja California’s Department of Public Safety.

And it came two days after an initial 542 prisoners from the Baja California penitentiary system had been moved to the prison in Islas MarÃ*as. A total 683 state prisoners now are housed at the prison, located 112 kilometers from the coast.

Jesús Grijalva, deputy secretary for the state penitentiary system, said in a release that the latest transfer is part of the on-going initiative to reduce prison overpopulation.

He said that the inmates that were transferred were serving sentences for federal crimes.

However, the president of an association of family members of current and former state prison inmates, Alicia Aguilar, refuted that contention. She said that many of the transferred prisoners were serving sentences for state crimes, mainly robbery.

“I have information that many of them were sent to Islas MarÃ*as in retaliation for the attempted uprising and others so they would not cause problems despite the fact that they only have just a few months left to serve,â€