The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
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Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Aug 2014 back issue
by Alfons Rodriguez
Placed in La Paz downtown, the administrative capital of Bolivia, San Pedro jail shares few characteristics with other
penitentiary centres from around the world. It lodges about 1700 prisoners, who have to pay for their "right" to enter the
jail, which is in addition to the fact that they also have to finance their time inside themselves.
They buy or rent a cell where they sleep and have a small private space. This space is often shared with their family
because women and children are permitted to accompany the prisoner in his new temporary life.
Most of them come from a background of poverty and marginalization. In the jail, as they work through their sentence
they must continue to fight for their survival, just as they would outside the prison.
