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April 18, 2016  |  By Douglas Keillor In News

What I didn’t know about Chihuahua

Here are a few things I didn’t know about Chihuahua before we started our project. But we need to know:

Chihuahua is Huge!

Chihuahua state is the largest state in Mexico. It is about the size of Colorado. About a third of the state is desert, sharing a boarder with southern Arizona and southwest Texas. Mountains make up about a third of the state as well on the western side. Chihuahua is one of the least densely populated states in Mexico (28 out of 32 states). But its two largest cities, Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua city are the 5th and 12th largest cities in all of Mexico. What that means is outside of these two population centers, the state is very sparsely populated.

tarahumara
Tarahumara community in Chihuahua

Chihuahua has a significant indigenous community

I usually think of the states of Puebla, Oaxaca or Chiapas as having large indigenous populations. But Chihuahua is home to about 120,000 members of the Tarahumara (or Rarámuri) people, an indigenous group that lives mainly in the mountains in the western part of the state. Indigenous peoples make up about 3% of the state’s population.

Tarahumara communities are some of the poorest in the world

The Tarahumara live on less that $2 per day. In fact, one Tarahumara community, Batopilas, is one of the 14 poorest municipalities in Mexico and one of the poorest in the entire world.


Tarahumara and Other Indigenous Teenagers in Prison

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Delivering Care Packages to Tarahumara boys

There are about 40 juveniles in Chihuahua’s prisons from the Tarahumara or other indigenous communities, about 25 in the Ciudad Juarez prison and 15 in the city of Chihuahua prison.  They make up about 7-9% of the juvenile prison population. These teens’ communities are so poor and the distances so vast in Chihuahua, that it is very rare for any of them to see their mothers or fathers on visiting days. Last week we had the opportunity to deliver Care Packages to the 15 Tarahumara boys in the Chihuahua prison. The prison social worker told us that these boys are the most in-need, they never get visitors and therefore never receive the basic supplies that everybody needs – underwear, soap, towels – but aren’t provided by the prison.

One boy began crying as he told me he hadn’t seen his mother for 10 months. He was 16 years old. Knowing these basic things about Chihuahua state help us to understand the tremendous obstacles that these boys, their families and communities face. Not only while they are in prison, but when the are released. Creating alternatives to detention and effective reintegration programs for these teens will be one of our biggest challenges in Chihuahua state.

Care Packages Chihuahua Tarahumara
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Guerrero

Los adolescentes en el sistema de justicia en Guerrero requieren de gran apoyo, servicios y protección del crimen organizado, por lo que nuestro trabajo se realiza bajo un nivel considerable de inseguridad pública. Somos la única A.C. trabajando para ayudar al gobierno para que los adolescentes tengan una verdadera segunda oportunidad.

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CDMX

Vista como líder nacional en las prácticas del sistema de justicia, la Ciudad de México tiene más adolescentes en detención que cualquier otra jurisdicción. Sin embargo, también ha desarrollado una unidad de seguimiento en libertad con numerosas alianzas con organizaciones. Nuestros proyectos fortalecerán esta área crítica.

JJI está trabajando en la Ciudad de México desde dos vertientes. En Alternativas a la Detención con un monitoreo que comenzó en 2019, pero por causas sanitarias y la pandemia por COVID, se retomó dos años después con un equipo de especialistas el cual ya está preparándose para continuar la actividad. En Movilizando voluntarios, se continúa con los esfuerzos para reunir a más adolescentes con sus familias, gracias al apoyo: “Reunificación familiar”. Así como también se han realizado entrega de enseres en los 6 centros.

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Durango

A pesar de tener un número menor de adolescentes en el sistema de justicia, Durango es una jurisdicción que busca la mejora continua. Durango es el primer estado donde tanto el poder judicial como el ejecutivo han firmado convenios de colaboración para la implementación de nuestros proyectos de Alternativas a la Detención.

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Chihuahua

Chihuahua es nuestro sitio piloto y un estado considerado líder en la reforma penal en México. Nuestros proyectos comenzaron en el 2016. Desde entonces, los tiempos en detención preventiva han disminuido, los adolescentes son supervisados con mayor eficiencia en sus comunidades y se ha mejorado la calidad de vida de aquellos adolescentes que siguen privados de su libertad.

En Chihuahua trabajamos con varios proyectos, como son el monitoreo que se trabaja en conjunto con la autoridad, y con los adolescentes y sus familias trabajamos en talleres, mesas de trabajo, eventos lúdicos, acompañamiento post penal, reubicaciones y traslados de familiares para audiencias y visitas, así como donaciones de enseres, ropa y material deportivo.

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Chiapas

Ante la apertura de los operadores del sistema de justicia para adolescentes del estado de Chiapas, a partir del mes de diciembre del año 2020 se tuvo acercamiento con los operadores que encabezan el Sistema de Justicia Penal para Adolescentes en el Estado de Chiapas, con el fin de coadyuvar en dicho sistema y en pro de todas las personas adolescentes Chiapanecos en conflicto con la ley. Tanto que el día 26 de abril del 2021, JJI realizó la presentación de proyectos ante los operadores del sistema penal para adolescentes en la Sala de Presidentes del Poder Judicial del Estado de Chiapas teniendo una respuesta de interés de los presentes.


En el tenor del desarrollo de la relación institucional JJI continuó aportando varias donaciones a los Centros de Internamiento Especializados para Adolescentes ubicados en los Municipios de Berriozábal ”Villa Crisol” y Mazatán “Zona Costa” del Estado de Chiapas, ha entregado Kit de enseres, insumos para la prevención del Virus SARS-CoV-2, canastas básicas conformados por alimentos y artículos de limpieza e higiene personal.

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Chihuahua

A national leader in criminal procedural reforms, our pilot project in Chihuahua started in 2016. Since that time the rates and duration of pretrial detention have declined, youth are being successfully supervised in their communities and new programs in the detention center have improved daily life for those children still deprived of liberty.

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Guerrero

Working under the shadow of significant public insecurity, the youth in Guerrero’s justice system are in dire need of support, services and protection from organized crime. We are one of the only nonprofits working to help the government and youth in detention get a second chance.

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CDMX

Looked to as the national leader in youth justice practices, Mexico City has more youth in detention than any other jurisdiction but has also developed a robust probation office and numerous alliances with nonprofits. Our projects will further fortify this critical work.

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Durango

Despite being a smaller jurisdiction, Durango is constantly looking to improve. Durango is the first state where both the Executive Branch and Judicial Branch have signed Memorandum of Understanding to launch the Alternatives to Detention initiatives.

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Chiapas

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