CAT/OP/MEX/1/Add.2 261. In 2007 the Ministry of Public Security implemented a federal penitentiary strategy involving a new model based on: • Prison surveillance intelligence systems; • Custodial security infrastructure, technology and systems; and • The creation of the National Prison Academy, which has been set up for the purpose of training personnel to international standards and from which 3,500 new prison officers have graduated. 262. The prison infrastructure strategy established by the Ministry of Public Security to meet the targets set in 2007 entails the following activities: • Expansion of federal prison capacity; • Enlarging the capacity of the Islas Marías penal complex. In December 2006 this island prison colony housed just 915 prisoners. Investment by the Federal Government has made it possible to increase its infrastructure and the prison population has now risen to 8,000 inmates; • Transferring state penitentiaries to the federal prison system. In the past three years the Federal Government has transferred five state penitentiaries to the federal prison system and has carried out the necessary adaptations to meet high standards of security and to transform these penitentiaries into high-security, large-capacity federal facilities. • A public-private investment arrangement for building new federal penitentiaries under service procurement contracts; • Eight additional federal penitentiaries are currently being constructed under this arrangement, which will make it possible to increase the prison infrastructure by more than 20,000 places. The new plans incorporate maximum and super-maximum security wings based on the classification produced by the International Corrections and Prisons Association; • Work has at the same time been carried out on the installation of systems to increase prison operational data and monitoring capacities. In this connection the National Prison Information System makes it possible through Platform Mexico to collate and unify the data on all the country’s prisons, including: • Records of persons prosecuted and convicted; • Index files on prison personnel; • Transfer operations and supervisory and monitoring systems. 263. The above measures will provide some 20,000 spaces for federal offenders to be placed in federal custody with advanced intelligence mechanisms for prison surveillance. 264. The federal prison system can now also accommodate prisoners sentenced under state (non-federal) jurisdiction whose dangerousness requires maximum security and for the first time has special premises for women prisoners. 265. Two prison facilities having the latest equipment for prisoner screening, supervision and surveillance as well as personnel trained in operational and custodial techniques were opened on 28 February 2012 at the north-western federal penitentiary complex. 76 GE.13-41196 (EXT)