What Is Special About El Salvador's Mega Prison? Farage Begins Talks of Sending Foreign Lags to the Facility

Nigel Farage is in talks with El Salvador to send some 10,000 foreign inmates accommodated in UK facilities. As of early this year, the British prison system was at 99% capacity. The government almost paused non-priority arrests to prevent overcrowding in prison.

Against this backdrop, Reform UK, which Farage leads, is seriously considering deporting thousands of non-UK prisoners. A delegation from the party is headed to El Salvador within the next few months to visit the nation's 'mega prison' and discuss the possibility of renting space, according to The Sun.

El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center

'Unbelievable, there are over 10,000 foreign nationals in British jails,' said Home Affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf. 'We will deport our foreign nationals from our jails. If their home countries won't take them back, we will send them to serve their sentences in countries like El Salvador and Kosovo.'

Formally called Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Terrorism Confinement Center, CECOT), the maximum security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador has a capacity of 40,000 inmates. It was built in 2022 and officially opened in January 2023. At its peak, the mega prison housed between 15,000 and 20,000 prisoners, said prison director Belarmino Garcia.

CECOT is the largest prison in Latin America. The facility is controversial for housing prisoners without due process. Once a person is incarcerated in the facility, they are least likely to ever go out, according to its critics. If they are released, some former detainees have revealed mistreatment, torture and sexual abuse.

Some have reportedly ended their lives due to the difficulty, although no official records could confirm this. However, right-wing politicians have called it a 'model of success.' Many Salvadorian gang members are housed in the facility due to President Nayib Bukele's gang crackdown, leading to the country's 1.7% incarceration rate (1,659 for every 100,000 population), which is the highest in the world.

Other Latin American countries are watching closely. Ecuador is reportedly already building its own maximum security prison. Meanwhile, Chilean President José Antonio Kast toured CECOT for a possible collaboration with Bukele.

Bukele, for his part, was a special guest for the stone-laying ceremony in Costa Rica, which is also building a CECOT-style facility. There are also demands to have a similar prison in Colombia.

Government's Sentencing Act

Reform UK also plans to put up temporary cells called Nightingale Prisons to solve overcrowding in jails. The programme is expected to open 12,000 spaces. The right-wing party is against the government's sentencing reforms, which provide for suspended sentences and deferred sentencing.

The framework has reportedly freed up a lot of prison spaces this year. According to the government's website: 'The Sentencing Act will grip this crisis, making sure future governments always have the prison places needed to keep people safe. This will keep dangerous criminals locked up, while bringing in tough new punishments that cut crime. To keep the public safe, more criminals will be tagged than ever before.'

The new guidelines are necessary as the government expects 3,000 new prisoners every year. While running at 95% to 99% capacity every year, the prison system was expected to run out of space this year. A Labour spokesperson also said that Farage's plan is already part of the sitting party's programme.