Underground Beauty Contest

*Warning: PIRATE RADIO presentation*

Decked out in glamorous gowns, tiaras and sporting big hair, these beauty pageant contestants look ready to strut their stuff in a bid to win the coveted crown.

But this is no typical contest. All these women are inmates at the Baja California state prison in Tijuana, Mexico.

Staff have introduced the fiercely-contested beauty contest behind bars as part of the jail's rehabilitation program.

A policewoman looks on as inmates walk toward the stage during a beauty pageant for female inmates at the Baja California state prison in Tijuana, Mexico

Excited inmates wait for the call to go on stage for the fiercely- contested competition as they stand behind bars at the jail 

An inmate has make-up applied in preparation for a beauty pageant, organised by inmates, prison authorities and civil society

While a jail home to drug dealers, thieves and petty criminals may be one of the last places you expect to see silks gowns and sashes, the pageant is taken very seriously.

The 21 candidates spent weeks getting in shape and training for the big day with everyone on their block giving them a helping hand.

Swapping their prison jumpsuits for ballgowns, the women proudly strut down the makeshift catwalk in the prison grounds, surrounded by high fences and barbed wire.

An aide helps a woman dressed in a glamorous bejeweled blue dress to access the stage during the pageant which had 21 contestants 

A prison full of thieves, drug smugglers and petty criminals may not be the place you might expect a pageant full of women in ballgowns and big hair to take place 

Swapping their prison jumpsuits for ballgowns, the women proudly strut down the makeshift catwalk in the prison grounds, surrounded by high fences and barbed wire

Inmates' families were allowed to come and watch the action as their daughters, sisters, mothers or husbands got a small taste of freedom for an afternoon.

In the first round, contestants dressed in matching skimpy black outfits and invited to dance on stage. 

They later strutted their stuff in traditional Mexican costumes before the final and most important round - the ballgown competition.

The deputy director of the state prison system in Baja California, Hector Grijalva Tapia said that more than 130 inmates helped the contestants who had entered the event.