GOVERNABILITY AND GOVERNANCE: APPROACH TO THE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM IN MEXICO

Abstract

This article is a theoretical research piece regarding the true depiction of penitentiaries in México with the objective of analyzing the governance and administrative conditions at Social Reintegration Centers which should allow for inmate development while strengthening public security in compliance with constitutional number 18: social reinsertion. Nowadays in México, there are 254, 705 people deprived of liberty in 420 institutions all over the country in a facilities designed to hold 203, 084 people (CNDH, 2015). This fact serves as evidence of penitentiary overpopulation − amajor factor in generating additional problems at Social Reintegration Centers. Examples of such problems in these centers include: corruption, criminal pollution, prison violence, and ineffective control by authorities. Taking this information into account, one must question if the current governance and administrative conditions at Social Reintegration Centers allow for the attainment of the main objective of these institutions: social reinsertion; rather tan further contrubuting to crime.