Odd News: Colombian Female Prison Inmates Have Annual In-house Beauty Pageant!

Wow! I didn’t know prison could be so glamorous! I also didn’t know you could bring makeup in prison-or hair stylists or makeup artists or have a freakin’ beauty pageant in prison! This Colombian women’s prison, “Good Shepherd”, is in Bogota, and apparently this prison is completely different from any American prison! They have beauty pageants every September!

The pageant is open to all of the 1,400 female inmates, and the contest is open to assassins, drug mules and former illegal combatants-you get the idea! There are nine cellblocks with anywhere from 100 to 250 women, and each cellblock selects one representative to be its candidate for beauty queen.

The pageant is cut-throat, and the chosen ladies prepare for almost 3 months in advance before the contest date! For this 3 day event in the prison, makeup artists are brought in, musicians play salsa, mariachi and vallenato to the crowd, and designers from some of the country’s most important pageants help the inmates develop costumes.

“Giving the inmates a beauty pageant is to let them take part in a national obsession. Towns can shut down during local pageants and television ratings during Miss Colombia week spike to levels seen only during World Cup Soccer.”

“Beauty pageants are everything in this country,” said Alex Lopez, a judge who works with vulnerable populations of women. “For a women to become queen of the prison is the best thing that could happen to her.”

Inmates believe that if they win the pageant, then they will also win liberty. With prison officials able to recommend early releases based on good behavior, the prison Director Magnolia Angulo Acevedo confirmed that it’s happened, winning beauty queens have been released from prison early!