What is it like to be a mother to the thousands of women who live in jails in Mexico?

About Mothers' Day that it will be celebrated May 10there are those who will not be able to enjoy a hug from their children. These are the thousands of the women who are confined in Mexican Prisons. According to official figures, in 2018, 10,594 women were in prison, including 1,269 in the Center for Women's Social Rehabilitation (CEFERESO) of Santa Martha Acatitla (SMA).

There, almost 80% of inmates are mothersmainly young people: "they are locked in the middle 22 years old and up to 40 and many, just of childbearing age. They are the mothers when they come in, during the stay and when they leave, "explained Marisa Belausteguigoitia, an academic at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

When a woman enters the prison, families become impoverished because they often leave from one to seven unprotected children. It is the women in your family who take care of it; the grandmother, the aunt, the cousin and sometimes even the neighbor.

Your entry into prison It is a traumatic event for all parties. Children often develop a sense of helplessness that often causes them to lose contact with their mother. she suffers for her part the separation with a lot of stress and anxiety it can not be sized.

Added to this is an economic burden, because although they are in prison, women must continue to generate money to take care of their children. Unfortunately, the government does not have a well-designed strategy in this area, resulting in very poorly paid jobs inside the prison.

In Santa Martha Acatitlafemale prisoners are more visited by their mothers (56%) than by their children (6.6%). According to a Mayra Elizabeth Aguilar Enríquez survey, more women than men are present. The figure shows the break family ties this entails entering a prison.

"Indeed, it is the mothers who visit the most women in prison, and the less son"said Patricia Piñones, of the University Human Rights Program (PUDH) and member of the project Women in Spiral.

"I'm not Batgirl, but I need it"

Guadalupe Cruz Ramírez She wears the beige uniform because her record is still pending, she has been dressing since June 2015, while she was accused of alleged homicide in a fight outside. , also involving two of his five children, who were seriously injured.

"It cost me a lot because a family disintegratesand the authorities do not see it that way. I've already verified that I did not killI did not give order, "he said, pointing to the scars on his hands, with" 21 stitches here and 12 here. "

"Lupita", as we fondly call her, does not hesitate to admit that it is sad to be in the "cave" without her children being supported, especially because He sold the house where they lived to pay their first lawyer.

"Why do not you come with me mom?"

"Why do not you come with my mother?" Is the question that any children who filled 5 years 11 monthsand who have lived with their the mothers in solitude in the Cefereso of Santa Martha Acatitla, which is allowed by the regulations.

Before this questioning, some answer without conviction: "is that my school," "I am punished and I behaved badly", Reported Piñones in an interview with UNAM.

Children, said Belausteguigoitia, they still want to stay with their mothers but it is not always the best, it is a dilemma. What better? Leave the child inside or out pbad it on to a public institution?

Reinserta organization indicates that in Mexico, 800 children were born and live in prison up to six years "The rule that allows them to stay up to almost six years is good because there is a CENDI in the jail and some women work as caregivers and advocates from among them, "added the researcher.

Piñones pointed out that a work of outsourcing small, to prepare them for their absence, because many of them have never had contact with the outside, they never got in a car, nor been in front of a large number of people, even before their own parents.

"Society asks, Why do women in prison decide to live with their children in prison? We answer, do you really decide? "Said one of the members of the Women in Spiral project, which aims to support and train mothers who live in isolation.

Prison support networks

With programs addressing psycho-affective, artistic, pedagogical and legal aspects, the university project aims to help female prisoners to organize in horizontal networks and set up a microsociety constituted of autonomy and self-service.

"It's touching to see the maternity networks they have. small children with them, we integrate them in workshops or take care of them when they go to court. We work with mothers as rights holdersin their process of citizenship, in the enjoyment and care of their baduality, in learning how to use their time and space and in the formation of their critical thinking and artistic development, and not their badistance, "he concluded. Marisa Belausteguigoitia.