Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
anyone who commits a crime in Tijuana will soon find them selves here- la Mesa. a prison that strikes more than fear into mexicans. and one where americans feel like scum
a self-contained empire governed by one man who rules with a iron fist.
a jail that houses cold blooded killers ,fighting bck leads to harsh punishment.
the inmates known fot having shorts fuses keeping things under control is a potentially deadly battle in one of the toughest prisons in the world.
every day up to 20 new prsioners wind up here.
each cell in block one at La Mesa holds an average of 8 to 10 criminals they share an area of just four by four and a half metres.
inmates havefew belonnings , mainly a few pieces of clothing, towels and small souvenirs from the world outside.all stripped back to the bare essentials.
one of the inmates abraham chavez orozco at age of 22,he is one of the youngest in La Mesa,arrested at the airport for drug trafficking, he was sentenced to five years,he’s already done three that means three years of sleeping, showering , going to the toilet without a single ounce of privacy.
many other inmates have lost all sense og hope particularly the prison’s american residents such as taylor elliot howard after all , US citizens have to remember that getting in trouble with the law in Tijuana just a stone’s throw from home will land them here.
taylor share his cell with six other americans they are kept separate the risk of altercations with other inmates is too high.
taylor had been accused of stealing a car,armed robbery of a car,the Tijuana police said he had two guns.AR-15 , 9 mm. taylor got nine years for that .
nine year in La Mesa penned up in one of the toughest prison in the world.but the worst thing isn’t the cell itself. even worse is the fact that the inmates are almost never allowed out .
in La Mesa exercise and fersh air are a luxury ,regardless of whether you’re a car thief ,drug dealer , child abuser or cartel killer.
the only glimpse any of them get of the sun tends to the through bars they spend almost their entire sentence in their cells.
this means two square metres for each inmates -some for just a few years other – for the rest of their lives. no doubt about it.
locked away on an almost permanent basis without any privacy in a prison with an iconclad set of rules
rules laid out by one man he has had the first and last word on what goes on at La Mesa since 2014.
director césar daniel ramírez acevedo
before La Mesa acevedo had already held the post of director at five other mexican prisons now he’s in the heart of Tijuana, a city where drugcartels battle it out for total domination and where 85% of all murders are related to narcotics.
Acevedo rules with the principle of 100% control,no matter what’s going on in his jail director acevedo knows about it.
the fist inmates are allowed outside early in the morning a moment that puts all of the wardens on high alert after all, the chance of an attack on the guards perhaås using a homeade weapon is never higher than at this moment.
the routine is always the same,between monday and thursday , the guards open up very specific cells on a certain floor of a specific building.
the same cells at the same time , every week and only one at a time.
the next group cannot be released until all of the inmates are in the stairways. this how the guards keep the upper hand.
for most inmates , the precise moment offers them the only 2 hours f direct sunlight they get each week. the prisoners are separated over three different courtyards.
thanks to al these measures inmates can only ever come into contact with just a few doxen others during their time in prison .
regardless of how long they may have been in there. this is how la mesa’s director acevedo keeps the risk of illegal trading, fights and weapons or drug dealing to a minimum.
at La Mesa the guards have lost their fight against the inmates on more than one occasion, with fatal consequences.
these days the external security team at La Mesa makes sure even if another riot does occur ,bodbody manages to escape ,guards protect the outher wall in the centre of a mexican city that is home to millions.
an additional safety measure highly trained attack dogs in no man’s land
should worse come to worse, the guards are equipped with both firearms….
and grenades.
what’s more , La Mesa places its most dangerous inmates in strict isolation-in their own separate block
commander flores continuez his hunt for rioters in section six. this part of the prsion operates on a more or less standalone basis
about 450 prisoners are housed in this section alone.the difference? -they’re all ringleaders and they work in organised cartel structures. their risk potential extremely high.
francisco javier villa padilla one of the most notorious cartel killers around, sentended for killing a police officer other cases will follow.
when he was arreste, police officers recovered five weapons, 174 rounds of ammunition and 51 bags of crystal meth, among other things…