475 weddings held in Mexico City prisons this year

Some 475 weddings were celebrated in Mexico City prisons during 2019, the Penitentiary System of the Mexican capital reported this Saturday.

Explained in a statement was the fact that the Penitentiary System, in coordination with the general management of the Civil Registry, permitted that number of marriages to be performed, the Efe news reported.

"In this way we help those otherwise deprived of their freedom to exercise their right to form a family," said the undersecretary of the Penitentiary System, Hazael Ruiz Ortega.

The official said that these actions in turn make visits to the prison on days of cohabitation and family get-togethers so much easier.

He also noted the importance of "the act of regulation of the inmates' judicial standing" with regard to their relationship with their spouses and children.

The majority of unions are between men or women who are being held in prison with women or men who are not inmates, but there are also cases where both are behind bars.

The official specified that most of the weddings - 211 of them - were held in the North Prison, while there were 96 in the East Prison and 48 in the South.

In the Penitentiary and the Diamond Unit, 21 were celebrated in each.

In addition there were 20 in the Male Center of Santa Martha and 19 in the Female Center, as well as 16 in the Male Center of Security Penitentiary I (Cevasep I) and 18 in Cevasep II.

Another three where held in the Eastern Annex, one in the Northern Annex and another in the Male Center for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (Cevarepsi).

Ruiz Ortega said that in addition to the 475 weddings, the Civil Registry provided the chance for persons deprived of their freedom "to officially register their children for no cost at all."

The campaigns for collective civil matrimonies performed inside prisons in the capital permit the civil union of couples without cost for the ceremony and the free issuance of a first marriage certificate.