The Three Marias are a set of small islands belonging to Nayarit
that together cover 245 km2.
The largest of them, "María Madre Island" has an interesting history,
which has earned it the nickname "The Tomb of the Pacific"
because for many years it housed one of the hardest prisons in the country,
La Colonia Penal Federal Islas Marías, "the Mexican Alcatraz".
In 1905, by order of Porfirio Díaz,
María Madre Island was turned into a maximum security prison,
destined for highly dangerous prisoners and mainly political opponents.
The distance from the islands to mainland averages more than 100 km of sea
and is home to hundreds of sharks, making escape almost impossible.
For years, the cruelty of the guards and the ill-treatment of the inmates,
where there were exaggeratedly aggressive and dangerous people,
turned this small place into a real hell.
Being transferred here was considered by many to be a worse punishment than death.
Although it was effectively inhabited by serial criminals and highly dangerous people,
a few years later it changed the system and became a prison good enough to be confined.
The "jail without bars"; system was implemented,
so that prisoners who showed good behavior could move freely through out the island,
was ordered the construction of a pier, a hospital, a school,
and several ware houses
in addition to shoe workshops, carpentry, machining,
music, agriculture and livestock,
so that the prisoners could learn skills
that would help them finish their sentence,
being truly a place of social reinsertion.
The inmates were given a small house built by themselves for them to live in
which they could decorate with furniture that they made themselves,
and even if they showed excellent behavior
they were allowed to have their relatives go to the island to live with them
until they finished their sentence,
Incredibly the system gave magnificent results.
A truly unique place in Mexico.
Of course, in order to have access to all these privileges,
several requirements had to be met.
The prisoner age must be between 20 and 50 years old,
be serving a minimum sentence of two years
be physically healthy, not to be part of criminal groups,
be a person of low resources and not be considered a psychopath.
One of his best-known tenants was mother Conchita,
who we will remember for being the master mind behind the attack that took Alvaro Obregon's life.
Incredible as it may seem,
someone in 1989 managed to escape from the prison.
Carlos Mujica, a prisoner who worked as a musician,
took advantage of a party to discreetly flee to one of the nearby islands,
where he improvised a ramshackle boat with which he managed to reach the mainland
after 13 days of sailing.
The police who took him for dead re-captured him less than a year later
when he was trying to rob a church,
In 2010 the archipelago was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO
for the conservation and protection of biodiversity.
Until mid-February 2019,
the penitentiary system remained the same;
prisoners paid for all their services by working 4 to 7 hours a day in one of the workshops,
cleaning, distributing letters or sowing vegetables.
And although for many it was a lifestyle already in grained,
by presidential order it was ordered closed as a prison,
to become a place of studies and tourism,
although its character as a Biosphere Reserve maybe limited to only 40 people per day.
While the prisoners will be relocated to different prisons throughout the country,
where we hope they will continue to have workshops on social reinsertion as effective.
What do you think about it?
Would you like to visit these islands?
What stories are hidden inside the Tomb of the Pacific?
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