I read today that the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo”, who is now in US custody in New York, has been denied a Bible, a Spanish-English dictionary (he doesn’t speak English), and is also being denied receipt of letters from his family.  See HERE for more details.  The place where he’s being held, an isolation wing of the Manhattan federal jail, “has been described as ‘worse than Guantanamo’ by inmates who’ve been in both.”

Sounds like he’s not very comfortable. And I’m OK with that.  If he had been involved only with drug smuggling, I’d be a little sympathetic.  It’s a business after all, and even if the product is illegal, it isn’t per se immoral.  However, by all accounts, Guzmán is also a murderer and torturer of multiple persons. He’d kill his own smugglers even for such minor offenses as being late with a shipment.

So when it comes to his confinement in a US prison, I guess I don’t care that he’s not doing well.  Some may say that he’s innocent until proven guilty, and of course, that is true, but he’s been convicted of a lot of heinous crimes in his home country and has served time for them.  In fact, he isn’t finished serving his time there.  I believe that the only reason the Mexican government has allowed him to be extradited to the US to face charges is that they are worried that he would escape from confinement a third time. So if he’s uncomfortable in his New York prison, that’s all well and good.