Chihuahua state prison in Juárez decreases inmate population
JUAREZ, Chihuahua (KVIA) -- Centro de Reinserción Social No. 3, or CERESO 3 in Juárez, has recently been operating at overpopulation.
The Chihuahua Secretariat of Public Safety (SSPE) took over operations of the state prison in February of 2023, after a prison riot that left several inmates dead.
'El CERESO' has a capacity for 3,889 inmates, currently, it has 4,196 people under custody; that's 7.87% of overpopulation (307 more inmates) according to Chihuahua state authorities.
In October, the SSPE opened a new section at the prison to add 110 cell blocks, which can house up to 660 more inmates.
This was an investment of over 13 million Mexican pesos to add more space to the prison located in South Juárez.
The new cell blocks are directed at "low-risk" inmates, well-behaved people who work at the prison and are part of any reintegration program there.
"From an overpopulation of just over 30%, 33% that we had in that prison. Today, with this inauguration of these 660 spaces, we achieved a historic reduction where right now we have an overpopulation of just over 7%," said the Chihuahua Secretary of Public Safety, Gilberto Loya.
"We have a projection that in December, before the end of the year, we will have a 0% overpopulation at the prison. In other words, end the overpopulation at the CERESO 3 in Ciudad Juárez," Secretary Loya added.
ABC-7 has reported when local, state, and federal authorities transferred "high-risk" and other inmates to different federal and state prisons in Mexico in March and August of this year.
Those operations slightly helped to reduce the number of inmates that were under custody in Juárez; this expansion is another effort to keep reducing the inmate population of the state prison South of the border.
