Mexico: 6 prisoners ca...

Mexico: 6 prisoners caught trying to swim from island jail

Authorities caught six prisoners at sea as they attempted to escape from an island jail off the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

November 25, 2011

Six escapees have been recaptured in the Pacific Ocean after attempting to swim to shore from a Mexican island prison.

The men used empty plastic water tanks and wooden planks to help them stay afloat, the Associated Press reported, prompting comparisons with Dustin Hoffman's escape from Devil's Island in the movie Papillon.

When they were picked up by the Mexican Navy Thursday, they had already swum some 60 miles from the Islas Marias Penal Colony, and were some 58 miles from the mainland.

Their escape was foiled when a passing boat spotted them in the water and called the authorities.

The inmates, aged between 28 and 39, were taken to the mainland for a medical examination and then returned to prison.

They were said to be "sunburnt and unhappy," but in reasonable health.

Islas Marias is the last remaining island penal colony in the Americas. Its inmates are generally free to roam the island, the AP said, since the geographical location was chosen to make the prison naturally escape-proof:

The Islas Marías Federal Penal Colony is a penitentiary establishment of the Federal Government of Mexico, administered through the Federal Secretariat of Public Security. It is located on Isla María Madre, the northernmost island of the largest of the Marías Islands archipielago.

Built in 1905, under the government of Porfirio Díaz, the prison of las Islas Marías was "the pride of the government" becoming the most modern prison model of its time, "escape proof", which operated as an alternative to house the delinquents, who due to their profile and background, could not be held in the prison of Lecumberri.

Until 1950 this prison colony was known as a feared detention center, due to violence, disease, and forced labor. It is calculated that the total number of prisoners to be housed there is above 29,000 .

During the government of Ernesto Zedillo the government decided to modernize the prison system and Islas Marias was deactivated. On 27 November 2003 it was declared a biosphere reserve but with the prison system still existing.

The prison situation in Mexico became so critical that the government announced in 2004 that they were reactivating the Islas Marias prison to transfer 2,500 prisoners from prisons all over the country.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/111125/mexico-6-prisoners-caught-trying-swim-island-jail