Inmates work to green Mexico City

The Mexico City Prison System announced that 20 inmates of the North Preventive Male Prison who are part of the program “Green Road,” joined the efforts to green the second level of the outer beltway Anillo Periférico, in the south of the capital.

The assistant secretary of the Prison System, Hazael Ruiz Ortega, said that this increases their involvement in the production of the net which serves as support for plants in more than 500 pillars located along the highway.

He explained that in order to be part of the project, which started in the Santa Martha Acatitla Female Center of Social Reintegration with the training of 20 women, the Sewing Workshop was created in the East Prison to specialize inmates in the cutting and making of the net used in the pillars.

Ruiz stated that the net has strict specifications about the way it must be cut and how it should be sewn, as well as the type of thread for its elaboration.

Both the women and men who participated in the workshop receive economic assistance equal to a day of minimum wage in Mexico City for each day of work and it is expected that in the next months the project can include more prisoners.

Ruíz Ortega added that during the training, the inmates developed the abilities to use industrial sewing machines, to identify different types of fabric, along with the composition and finish of textile products, all of which will aid them once their sentence comes to an end and they will reintegrate to the working life with specific crafting knowledge.

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