Abstract

ARCINIEGA, Hugo. Los palacios de Themis. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2000, vol.22, n.76, pp.143-178. ISSN 0185-1276.

In this article, Hugo Arciniega reviews the conditions prevailing in Mexico's penitentiary system around the mid 19th century. Through a philological approach to the process leading up to the construction of La Acordada Prison during the colonial period, and using this institution as the subject of an architectural and urbanistic analysis, the author details the living conditions of Mexican prisoners around 1840, when Ignacio Cumplido, editor of El Mosaico Mexicano (The Mexican Mosaic), was imprisoned. The journalist's criticism of the inhuman conditions to which prisoners were subjected and the State's urgent need to control delinquency paved the way for the project of Spanish architect Lorenzo de la Hidalga. The uncertain implementation of this project clearly underlined the national economic inability to reform the prison system, as well as the inadequate political determination to modernize it and bring it into line with those of more developed countries.

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