7. Mexico
Prison population: 225.138
In last fifteen years, the prison population increased from 156 inmates per 100.000 residents to 212, in 2015. The report made by Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights stressed several problems that seriously interfere with the functioning of the correction system, including decreasing prison capacity, poor security, mass killings and criminal activities behind bars.
In 2015, occupancy level in Mexico prison was 125.7 percent while in some prisons the number of inmates exceeded capacity by almost 40 percent. In overcrowded prisons, where guards often make an alliance with criminals, either because they count on extra cash or because they fear for lives of their families, high security standards aren’t easily maintained. Besides El Chapo, who spectacularly escaped from the maximum security facility in 2015, many others managed to flee from prisons. In 2012, almost 200 inmates escaped only from prison in Tamaulipas.
