100 Couples Say 'I Do' at a Mexican Prison Associated Press
go to original August 25, 2012

Over a hundred couples have been married in a Mexico prison. The mass wedding was held in the Centre for Social Rehabilitation in the city of Ciudad Juarez. (Sarah Johnston/ITN)

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — More than 100 inmates have married at a Mexican border prison in a collective ceremony meant to give their families legal rights for visits and for court proceedings.

Chihuahua state Civil Registry Office director Cesar Fernando Ramirez officiated Friday. He says the mass wedding is part of a government's strategy to regularize the inmates so they can better incorporate back into life once they end their sentence.

Siblings and children of the men were at the Ciudad Juarez prison celebrating the newlyweds. Ramirez had them say a collective "I do" by pointing the microphone at the public.

Mexican prisons often hold collective weddings. But this is one of the largest in the region, which has been hit hard by drug violence in recent years.

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