Mexico City’s ‘Hangover Prison’ El Torito Fills Up During Holidays

The Washington Post reported on Friday that a Mexico City “hangover prison” – the Center for Administrative Sanctions and Social Integration, otherwise known as “El Torito” – has been filling up during this holiday, as it has every holiday season since the late 1950s, when it first opened. El Torito, a sort of drunk tank for drivers who blow a 0.08 or above when given a Breathalyzer test by police, sees about 1,500 pass in and out in a normal month, according to its director, Rosa Maria Laguardia. But Laguardia told the Post that the Center sees “an exceeding amount of people arriving” after having had too much to drink during end-of-the-year festivities.

“Very powerful people,” Laguardia said. “Humble people. Engineers, lawyers, artists, journalists. Everyone. Everyone ends up here.” According to Informador, though, they’re mostly men – 93 percent of the people who end up there, in fact – and El Torito can hold up to about 124 of them at a time. The Post writes more than 100,000 people have slept off what they’ve tied on since the place opened its doors, and though the majority are drunk drivers, some of its inmates were checked in by the cops for infractions like scalping tickets, cleaning windshields at stoplights, or getting too crazy at a soccer game.

Inmates have to spend 20 to 35 hours inside El Torito, depending on the infraction, and sometimes must pay as much as 7,000 pesos ($535) in bail. Informador writes that about 4 or 5 out of every dozen car accidents which occur in the Mexican capital are related to the consumption of alcohol. “The objective of the institution is to make people aware of the damage they can cause themselves and others” by drinking and driving, Laguardia told the Post. “They can suffer tremendous crashes, and often people die.”