Dramatic footage has emerged from inside El Salvador’s mega-prison for gang members showing its concrete confinement cell and impenetrable security.
The Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) in Tecoluca is home to 40,000 of the world’s most dangerous men who will never be released – each one with at least one homicide conviction.
And now YouTuber Nick Shirley has offered one of the most in-depth looks at the prison’s interior yet.
He also takes a tour of the solitary confinement chamber, a narrow cell comprising only a raised concrete platform used as a bed alongside a rudimentary toilet basin.
There is no mattress on the bed and anyone finding themselves in a solitary is not given any sheets to slip on.
A sink is filled with cold water for inmates to wash on – and natural light comes from a small round hole drilled into the thick concrete ceiling.
Nick Shirley takes a tour of the solitary confinement chamber, a narrow cell comprising only a raised concrete platform used as a bed alongside a rudimentary toilet basin
‘As of right now we have not had one attempt to escape or disorder inside the prison,’ a security guard told YouTube content creator Nick Shirley as he displayed a ginormous hidden armory designed to deal with rioters
Shirley also offered the first glance at steps prison workers have taken to tamp down any riots. An enormous room filled with scores of assault rifles sits within the prison, waiting to be deployed in the event of any future unrest.
Footage from the inside shows topless and heavily tattooed inmates lined up under the watchful eye of heavily-armed guards at the institution which has been a key part of a concerted effort to drive down El Salvador’s murder rate.
The number of homicides in the Central America nation dropped 70 percent last year as authorities under the leadership of President Nayib Bukele cracked down on criminals both inside and outside the jail.
‘As of right now we have not had one attempt to escape or disorder inside the prison,’ a security guard told YouTube content creator Nick Shirley as he displayed a enormous hidden armory designed to deal with rioters.
The Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) in Tecoluca is home to 40,000 of the world’s most dangerous men who will never be released – each one with at least one homicide conviction
Dramatic footage has emerged from inside El Salvador’s mega-prison for gang members showing its concrete confinement cell and impenetrable security details
The guard also shows ankle chains and handcuffs used to shackle the 40,000 prisoners in the event of any being moved between the eight football-field-sized buildings on site.
CECOT is a fortress of high security where artificial light shines 24/7, and inmates can only leave their cells for 30 minutes a day while being forced to eat with their hands as knives and forks are considered potential weapons.
Guards told Shirley prisoners have no contact with the outside world as the premise is a cellphone service black hole.
They’re stripped of much of their clothing and privacy – as even the toilets are set in plain sight of dozens of prisoners.
Shirley’s video shows MS-13 gang members who have been involved in murders, kidnapping and drug offenses doing exercise using only their bodyweight due to fears of them bludgeoning each other with dumbbells.
Life outside the cell isn’t much better, as prisoners exist on a diet stripped of any meat or vegetables. Guards told Shirley most meals comprise only beans and tortillas with cheese or cream.
The convicts are forced to sleep in close quarters, each taking a bed, which is just a metal sheet on a four-story bunk.
Footage from the inside shows topless and heavily tattooed inmates under the watchful eye of heavily-armed guards at the institution which has been a key part of a concerted effort to drive down El Salvador’s murder rate
The Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) in Tecoluca is home to 40,000 of the world’s most dangerous men who will never be released – each one with at least one homicide conviction
The convicts are forced to sleep in close quarters, each taking a bed, which is just a metal sheet on a four-story bunk
In each 100 square-meter cell the notoriously dangerous inmates are forced to share just two toilets and two sinks
Charities have hit out at the CECOT facility calling it a ‘black hole of human rights’
In each 100 square-meter cell the notoriously dangerous inmates are forced to share just two toilets and two sinks.
They get a brief 30-minute window in which they’re allowed to exercise, using only their own bodyweight due to fears of them bludgeoning each other or the guards with dumbbells or barbells.
No one who enters CECOT has ever come out. Prisoners pass through a full body scanner so it’s impossible to smuggle anything in, and once they’re inside they’re subject to surveillance by guards at 27 watch towers.
Escape is impossible thanks to two layers of 27-foot high walls topped with an extra nine feet of 15-bolt electrical fencing. Below, the ground is made of rough pebbles so the slightest movement would make a noise.
Charities have hit out at the facility calling it a ‘black hole of human rights’, while UN officials have described it as a ‘concrete and steel pit’ built to dispatch of the prisoners without applying the death penalty.
Critics claim some of the men housed within the prison are innocent and that they were caught up in a wider anti-gang crackdown.
But the policies remain popular among locals relieved to finally find their streets are much safer.
El Salvador imprisons people at triple the rate of the US, according to Bloomberg, with 1.6 percent of its 6.3 million citizens living behind bars by the end of 2023.
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