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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Culture & Society

El Salvador prisons at 261% capacity, human rights group reports

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • El Salvador's prison system is overcrowded, with 118,369 inmates in facilities designed for 30,864, resulting in a 261% global overcrowding rate.
  • The majority of inmates are in common prisons, while 14,532 are in the high-security CECOT, which is at 36% capacity.
  • Human rights advocates warn that overcrowding exacerbates rights violations, impacting habitability, hygiene, health, and dignified treatment.

El Salvador's prisons are severely overcrowded, holding 118,369 inmates in facilities with an effective capacity of just 30,864. This translates to a global overcrowding rate of 261%, according to a report by the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University (Idhuca).

the problem is not cyclical, nor is it resolved solely with prison infrastructure.

— Idhuca researchersResearchers from the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University (Idhuca) stated that the overcrowding issue is structural and cannot be solved by building more facilities alone.

The report, shared with international news agencies, details that 103,837 individuals are in common prisons. An additional 14,532 inmates are housed in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), President Nayib Bukele's high-security "megaprison" built as part of his anti-gang strategy. CECOT is currently at 36% of its 40,000-inmate capacity.

Idhuca emphasizes that the overcrowding is a structural issue, not merely a temporary problem solvable by new infrastructure. Even if CECOT were at full capacity, the overall overcrowding rate would still be around 167%. The institute warns that such conditions multiply rights violations, posing severe risks to habitability, hygiene, health, food, internal security, and dignified treatment.

overcrowding functions as a multiplier of rights violations

— IdhucaThe institute warned that the severe prison overcrowding directly leads to increased violations of inmates' rights.

The report links the extreme overcrowding to a degradation of inmates' physical and psychological integrity, contributing to deaths from delayed medical care and inhumane living conditions. This situation arises after four years of a "state of exception" measure, under which over 92,300 people have been detained on suspicion of gang affiliation.

even if CECOT were fully occupied, overcrowding would still be approximately 167%.

— IdhucaThe report highlights that even with the full utilization of the new CECOT facility, the prison system would remain significantly overcrowded.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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