Prisoners in Mexico rehearsing their big musical number for the pope ahead of his visit to Mexico

Prisoners in Mexico  rehearsing Jailhouse Rock for the pope ahead of his visit in less than two weeks to Mexico.

 Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, will travel to Ciudad Juarez on February 17 for the last stop of his tour of Mexico.

He will travel to Cereso 3 from Juarez airport, where he is due to land at 10:30am according to the agenda published by the Catholic diocese of El Paso.

Inmates at Cereso 3, in Ciudad Juarez, gathered outside to practice their singing on Friday. Some of them also painted wooden church benches.

 

Prisoners also painted wooden church benches to prepare for the Pope's visit. Francis will travel to Cereso 3 from the airport. He will meet and pray with inmates, their relatives, and some religious workers

Cereso 3 was once a center of gang power where inmates acted violently and enacted their own rules, AP reported. But now officials have regained control, making it possible for Pope Francis to meet and pray with several inmates as well as their relatives and some religious workers. 

Inmates returned to their cells after the rehearsal under the watch of a policeman. The shortcomings of the Mexican prison system came to light when drug lord Joaquin Guzman, also known as El Chapo, escaped from a maximum security facility through a tunnel.