La diáspora invisible: boricuas en cárceles de Estados Unidos

The high cost of hiring a lawyer, the English language, and an insensible prison system complicate the situation for families in Puerto Rico with relatives imprisoned in the United States.

The question came to my mind five years ago: how many Puerto Ricans are incarcerated in the United States? At the time, in 2018, I was investigating the Government of Puerto Rico’s failed attempt to transfer incarcerated people from the custody of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to a private prison in Mississippi.

For Samuel Serrano, going to prison is like disappearing. And he knows from experience that many stay inside. He is Puerto Rican, owns an auto repair shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the state with the most people born in Puerto Rico serving sentences in state prisons.

The correctional classification system doesn’t have the exact number, but for the first time, the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo got a sample that allows us to look at this historically invisible population.