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FERT Bruno contact photographer • BOLIVIA: the amazing prison of San Pedro.
In the penitentiary of San Pedro, in Bolivia, 1 600 prisoners live with their family and possess the keys of their cell. The administration cannot see anything wrong with that. This small community works as an independent society, with its rules, its economy, its justice and even its political process.

Carlos accompanies his wife Beatriz and their two children up to the iron gate. As every Saturday, the family goes to the market of La Paz to fill up provisions there. But Carlos will not cross the entrance gate : we are in the Prison of San Pedro where he serves a sentence of 20 years … At San Pedro, prisoners live in family, possess the keys of their cell and move quite freely in the labyrinth of corridors and courts connecting the eight sections of the prison. San Pedro is an amazing place : the unique prison of that type in the world.
It is a kind of microcosm, a city in the city inside the full centre of the Bolivian capital. The 1 600 prisoners are mostly pursued for drug traffic, but we meet also murderers and thieves over there. All of them are totally free within the walls surrounding the penitentiary. Many of them work in the numerous restaurants, shops or small firms which belong to the prisoners. Because in San Pedro, it is necessary to work to buy a cell! The prices vary according to the surface and the place. 5 stars rate the best sections and the most ruined do not have any star. The market of the real-estate works as everywhere, according to the law of supply and demand. So, a cell with bathroom in a 5 stars section, as Los Pinos, can cost up to 1 500 dollars, without counting the tax of entrance, sort of local tax for the maintenance costs of each section.
Some prisoners buy ruined cells to make renovation works and resell them at a higher price when they are released! Other prisoners, who have no money, are simply homeless and sleep in corridors.

Contact the photographer for the full text
Features Ref.
Place: La Paz, Bolivie
Date: 23/10/2006

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