Mexico

Abstract

After a long conversation with Señor Marcial Flores Reyes, the Deputy Head of Prisons in Mexico City, I realised that my long journey had not been in vain. Drawn to Mexico by reports of prison reforms that had not been attempted in Britain, the appalling social and economic conditions of the mass of the population quickly absorbed me. This is a largely illiterate population, with families of 15 or more children the norm among the rural and urban poor. Many of them live in wretched shacks, some appear to have no homes at all, for a common sight in the streets of Mexico City late at night, among the well-dressed crowds leaving cinemas and theatres, are the women sitting on the kerb with two or three tiny children, usually girls, who have already learned to beg with great determination. Importuning foreigners is a way of life for these tiny girls of three or four years of age, and it is not surprising that by the age of 11 many have become prostitutes. They and their parents and brothers break the law and commit offences in order to live and keep body and soul together.