Tijuana — Young men sit on the 3-foot-wide floor of a holding cell in the old Tijuana jail. © Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times
Don Bartletti provided photos for Richard Marosi’s story “Notorious Tijuana jail to be just a dark memory.”
From the LA Times: “A cacophony of shouts and clanging metal. The overpowering stench of vomit and urine. This is the Tijuana jail, nicknamed “La Ocho” because it is on Eighth Street. The lockup, known for decades to hard-partying hordes of Americans and locals, is closing.”
My guess would be anyone who suffered a night or more in this hole will be glad no-one else has to endure the same?
Prison Photography 
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October 7, 2010 at 2:07 pm
The Real Tijuana
La Ocho was built at a time when very few people lived in Tijuana, just a couple hundred thousand. The city began growing rapidly with the maquiladoras of the late 1970s and we are now up to 3.4 million inhabitants. La Ocho started to feel that strain in the 1980s.
Nowadays La Ocho is sitting on some valuable real estate. But, yes, its prisoners have deserved better accommodations for years.
Many of its Mexican prisoners, during this municipal administration, did not even deserve to be arrested. They were picked up for looking poor. Most of the tourists who wind up as guests of the jail, regardless of the current mayor, got there by offending common decency or insulting a policeman. If you don’t sass the cops and you don’t pee on the street, you should have no trouble at all in Tijuana.
October 7, 2010 at 2:36 pm
petebrook
@RealTijuana. Thanks for the info. I agree that indecent acts by tourists would and should land them in the cells for a night. Their punishment made all the worse by decrepit facilities. La Ocho is not alone in being unsuitable in its conditions – I am sure every nation has its jail/drunk tank.
I also don’t doubt, as you say, that locals got locked up for no good reason. The closure of the facility is a win win all round. And finally an end to the embellished stories of US frat boys who came unstuck by legitimate policing!
August 4, 2013 at 8:39 pm
Sancho dos Rojo
I spent a night in there in Aug 1966. Kangaroo court. Fine $25 or 5 days. Luckily dad bailed me out.