Overview
- INEGI’s CNSIPEF-E, published in mid-July, found 157,457 people entered prisons in 2025, a 19.2% rise over the comparable 2024 universe and a year-end population of 231,436.
- At the close of 2025, 97,722 people—42.2% of the reported prison population—remained without a judicial sentence, mainly held under preventive detention orders.
- Women faced the largest gap: 52.6% of women deprived of liberty had no sentence, compared with 41.5% of men, with narcomenudeo and kidnapping among the most common charges for women in some states.
- The system ran at 112.8% occupancy overall and showed stark regional differences: Baja California led admissions with 21,062 entries and Sonora had the highest incarceration rate per 100,000, while Nayarit and Estado de México reported the worst overcrowding.
- INEGI also reported that real spending on prisons fell to one of its lowest levels since 2021 and staffing hit a four-year low, a combination that could lengthen pretrial stays and raise human-rights and judicial backlogs.