 |
Frontera
NorteSur
March 2002 |
HEALTH
Drug Rehab in BC Prisons
In the Baja California state prison known as "El Pueblito,"
128 inmates graduated from the Segunda Oportunidad (Second Chance)
drug rehabilitation program on Sunday, February 24, 2002.
According to Joy Westrum, the director of Segunda Oportunidad,
the program has been in existence for one year and has graduated
more than 2,000 people.
A prison official said that approximately 60% of incoming prisoners
are drug users and this is one reason why rehabilitation programs
are so important. The official also mentioned that prison drug
use is a real problem that allows addicts to continue with their
habit while they are incarcerated.
Within the next three to four months, Segunda Oportunidad will
be offered in the El Hongo state prison, the official said.
Source: Frontera (Tijuana), February 25, 2002. Article by Ernesto
Alvarez.
Cold Weather Endangers Migrants and Closes Roads in Baja California
Below freezing temperatures and snow in the areas around Tijuana
and Tecate forced Mexican officials to close frozen roads and
rescue migrants that had become stranded while seeking to enter
the US on January 29, 2002.
A group of five young migrants from Michoacán and Jalisco
requested and received help at a toll booth in the mountains near
Tecate, a small city between Méxicali and Tijuana. The
five men and women then told the migrant-aid group Grupo Beta
Tecate where to go and look for fourteen more migrants that were
seeking shelter from the elements in a series of caves. The five
also told Grupo Beta that they had been lost since they were abandoned
by their guide.
The Policía Federal Preventiva (Federal Preventative
Police, PFP) also closed for one hour both the free and toll Méxicali-Tijuana
highways due to ice on the roads. There was one accident on the
free highway in which a tractor trailer hit ice and ran into bus.
There were no injuries.
Source: Frontera, January 30, 2002. Article by Angel Ruiz, Alondra
Vela and Aline Corpus.