Belem Prison was located in Mexico City, Mexico and operated from 1886 until the early 1930s. The building was originally used by the Church and was confiscated during the Liberal Reform in 1857. The prison was replaced as the main prison by Lecumberri prison, becoming the equivalent of a county or city jail. Housed many of the well-known criminals who had very public trials.
Architectural and ecclesiastical heritage
The building that would eventually become Belén Prison was commissioned by Padre Domingo Perez de Barcia. It was built in 1683, and in 1908 was listed as one of the oldest buildings in the city. This well noted priest of the late 17th century collected the funds necessary to build what would be named Colegio de San Miguel de Belém (Translation: College of St. Michael of Bethlehem). This building, commonly referred to as Colegio de las Mochas (Translation: College of the Cropped ones), was over time a convent, an asylum, and a hospital for indigent religious women.
In 1857, during the period known as Liberal reform, the property was confiscated by the state.< In 1886, the building re-opened as Belén Prison.
Prison history
In 1886, Belén became the main prison for Mexico City. It was in this year that all prisoner and courts were moved from the municipal palace and took up residence in the former convent. This building was located in the southwest area of Mexico City. The prison was known throughout the city to be a center of filth and crime. Criminals who came in left with a better understanding of how to be a criminal. If someone were innocent when they entered Belén that they would come out a full-fledged criminal.
After 1900 when Lecumberri prison was opened, Belén became more like a county jail, holding only short sentence criminals and those awaiting trial after was opened in 1900.
The building was eventually torn down, making way for a school to be built. Many Prison reformers had urged that Belén was the epitome of a broken prison. They argued that the prison was more of a source of entertainment than a place of rehabilitation.
During the Mexican Revolution, the prison was attacked and many of the prisoners set free.
Layout
The building had three floors and a basement. The top floor was reserved for elites/nobles of Mexico City. One scholar notes, “once a gentleman, always a gentleman, even in prison”. This area was called the “Department of Distinction” and offered the elite law breakers the same comforts they would find at home.
The second and first floors held areas for the women and children who were sentenced to jail time. It is important to note that while they were afforded separate living accommodations, these separations were not enforced. These floors also held the administrative offices and court rooms.
The basement of Belén was a place that was notorious. In the basement, frequent flooding happened, leaving the inmates to wade through their cells in dangerously contaminated waters. The two most notorious cells in the basement were named “Hell” and “Purgatory” these were solitary confinement cells and no light entered the cells.
The cells had a single hole in the ground for the prisoners to relieve themselves in, which only compounded the problems of flooding, adding a dangerously disgusting aspect.
The cells in the basement where reserved for those who had been sentenced to Life incarceration or the death penalty. If a person who had been sentenced to death did not die from the conditions in the cellar, they would then face a firing squad.
The firing squad would take the inmate to “The Garden” which was a walled in structure on the rear-facing side of the building. The men would place the inmate against the wall and proceed to carry out the death sentence. The use of the death penalty waned at the turn of the century; prisoners no longer feared “The Garden” because it was very likely they could and would get their sentence overturned to a twenty-year sentence.
Prison Order
The prison had few officials tasked with oversight of the prison. The inmates were in charge of the daily running of the facility. These residents were called “Presidents” and in charge of making sure the functions were carried out. The few staff that oversaw these “Presidents” were termed “Majors” and left even discipline of the inmates to the “President of Blows”.
