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Mexico · Baja California · Tijuana

CRS Lic. Jorge A. Duarte Castillo (Tijuana)

Centro de Reinserción SocialMixedmixedLowHigh
Verified
Aging · 4mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit CRS Lic. Jorge A. Duarte Castillo (Tijuana)

Step-by-step guidance using the Mexico system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit

Tijuana's main prison. Holds U.S. nationals among others; subject of multiple State Department travel advisories.

Background

La Mesa State Penitentiary is a prison in the La Mesa borough of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It is considered "one of the most notorious prisons in Latin America". The prison was built for 2,000 inmates and had 2,500 inmates in the 1990s, but the number increased to over 7,000 by the 2010s. Prisoners have committed offenses ranging from theft to murder. Some prison guards were reported to have taken bribes in exchange for releasing prisoners or offering better conditions.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

2,556

Current population

—

Occupancy

—

Year opened

—

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 3 Jul 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

mixed

Opened

—

Region

Baja California

Security level

Mixed

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

ncinerators. Public Health Reports. 1996; 111:299- 313. 8.36 Volkow P, Jacquemin B, Vilar-Compte D, Castillo JR. Contact with blood and body fluids of hospital syringes. Implications for regulated medical waste. Salud Pública de México. 8.37 Volkow P. Rangel-Frausto S. Ponce de León Rosales S. Basura hospitalaria: comentarios sobre sus riesgos y su regulación. Enf Infec y Microbiol 1999; 19:1-4. 8.38 Weber DJ, Rutala WA. Environmental Issues and Nosocomial Infection in Wenzel R. Prevention and Control of Nosocomial Infection. Third edition William amp; Wilkins USA 1997; pag. 492-514. 8.39 Weinstein S, Kotilainen HR, Moore D Gantz, N. Microbiologic contamination of hospital trash from patients on isolation precautions versus standard care. Am J Infect. Control 1988; 16:76. Integrado por: Subdirección de Informática JurídicaPágina 17 de 20 Dirección General de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicaciones 8.40 Who/PEP/RUD/94.1. General. Managing Medical Wastes in Developing Countries World Health Organization 1994. 8.41 Reglamento de la Ley General de Salud en materia de Control Sanitario de la Disposición de Organos, Tejidos y Cadáveres de Seres Humanos publicado en el Diario Oficial de Federación el 20 de febrero de 1985.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

Boulevard Industrial, Tijuana 22115
+52 664 622 5000
Official site

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

0/100
Low concern0/100
Overcrowding
0/30
Oversight reports
0/30
Structural flags
0/15
Death signals
0/15
Conditions text
0/10

This facility scores 0. The national average across 629 scored Mexico facilities is 8 — 8 points below national average.

Related facilities

All in Mexico →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Compared to other facilities in Mexico

628 peers
Capacity (beds)this: 2556 · peers avg: 772 (+231%)

Reports

  • NPM-mx-cndh-mnp1 Jan 2016

    ncinerators. Public Health Reports. 1996; 111:299- 313. 8.36 Volkow P, Jacquemin B, Vilar-Compte D, Castillo JR. Contact with blood and body fluids of hospital syringes. Implications for regulated medical waste. Salud Pública de México. 8.37 Volkow P. Rangel-Frausto S. Ponce de León Rosales S. Basura hospitalaria: comentarios sobre sus riesgos y su regulación. Enf Infec y Microbiol 1999; 19:1-4. 8.38 Weber DJ, Rutala WA. Environmental Issues and Nosocomial Infection in Wenzel R. Prevention and Control of Nosocomial Infection. Third edition William amp; Wilkins USA 1997; pag. 492-514. 8.39 Weinstein S, Kotilainen HR, Moore D Gantz, N. Microbiologic contamination of hospital trash from patients on isolation precautions versus standard care. Am J Infect. Control 1988; 16:76. Integrado por: Subdirección de Informática JurídicaPágina 17 de 20 Dirección General de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicaciones 8.40 Who/PEP/RUD/94.1. General. Managing Medical Wastes in Developing Countries World Health Organization 1994. 8.41 Reglamento de la Ley General de Salud en materia de Control Sanitario de la Disposición de Organos, Tejidos y Cadáveres de Seres Humanos publicado en el Diario Oficial de Federación el 20 de febrero de 1985.

    source

Data completeness

78%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). CRS Lic. Jorge A. Duarte Castillo (Tijuana). Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/centro-de-reinsercion-social-la-mesa-tijuana
Chicago
"CRS Lic. Jorge A. Duarte Castillo (Tijuana)." World Prisons. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/centro-de-reinsercion-social-la-mesa-tijuana.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-centro-de-reinsercion-socia,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {CRS Lic. Jorge A. Duarte Castillo (Tijuana)},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/centro-de-reinsercion-social-la-mesa-tijuana},
  urldate = {2026-10-24}
}