Challenging stereotypes

I first heard about the Guachochi prison in December, while I was in Ciudad Juárez as an Adelante Fellow. It was one of the fixers who mentioned its existence, and I immediately made note of it. The prison in Guachochi is almost exclusively populated by indigenous men that live in the Sierra Tarahumara, in southern Chihuahua. When the IWMF gave me a chance to travel back to this region thanks to a continuing reporting grant, I knew I had to visit. Melissa Lyttle and I just spent a few days there. Some of the inmates were incredibly generous: they played music for us, danced, and shared their difficult stories. They helped me challenge my preconceptions and left me with many questions. What does it really mean for a man to be a convicted murderer or a rapist? Did these men simply make a one-off mistake? How can jail time help a man change his life? And can someone who committed something so atrocious really change?