Spring Break in Prison

Visiting Day at adult prison in Mexico City

This week in Spring Break in Mexico. Kids actually have two weeks off from school for spring break. But don't worry, school goes until July14th.

As we are finishing up our work for the week and planning to get out of Mexico City for a few days, it got me thinking about what spring break is like for kids in prison.
Of course there is no spring break. The lucky kids will see their parents a few more times than normal. But every visiting day in prison is bitter sweet. For the kids whose parents are able to visit them, it is a short time to be together but always hanging over their heads is the knowledge that within a few hours their parents will have to leave again.

But there is another group of kids, a smaller group of kids who don't receive any visits. Some don't have parents, others' live too far away to make the trip to the center of Mexico City, and some parents have given up on their kids and don't visit. For these kids, visit day and especially holidays, are a time of loneliness and depression. These kids see their fellow prisoners' families and the love that is exchanged on visiting days which only reminds them of their isolation.

Too many kids are stuck in prisons in Mexico and Latin America. The days we look forward to the most, holidays and vacation, are often the days these kids dread the most.

Saturday and Sunday

Families hurry to see their kids

And try to have a good time

Even though it is just a little while

To be together while they are locked up

Because it is the law....

The sad rain

Of families crying

Because they have to be separated...

Excerpt from "Dia de Visita" written by kids in prison in Mexico City.