In Chetumal, Mexico, prisoners set free their creative side, writer says

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Mexico’s prisons are notorious for their corruption, brutality and indifference to human rights. But in today’s Travel section of the Los Angeles Times, freelancer Judith Fein writes about one prison in Chetumal, in the Yucatan peninsula, where at least some inmates have managed to find an outlet for their creativity, she says.

‘Some travelers shop for designer clothes. Others haunt china shops, jewelry stores or load up on cans and jars of exotic foods. My passion is prisons and specifically their art.

‘As a longtime volunteer in a juvenile detention center, I knew that prisoners were highly creative, in spite of -- or maybe because of -- their surroundings. Art, prose and music provide the escape, albeit mental, they need.

‘In some prisons, there is contact with the artists, and in others, the work is sold in a shop by prison personnel. I have always felt safe and fascinated rather than fearful.’

-- Reed Johnson in Los Angeles