12 October 2023 , 23:17
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Inmates of a prison that arguably houses some of the world's toughest criminals offered a social behaviour class this week that seemingly garnered a decent turnout.
The Terrorism Confinement Center, located in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador, hosted a social behaviour class within the prison this week. Photos from inside the prison show rows of inmates lined up in the middle of the common area, seated before an instructor in gym wear.
About 20 inmates can be seen in the common area at a time while the others look on from their crowded cells. The inmates all look similar to each other: all have shaved heads while the majority are also tatted. Some outliers have tattoos completely covering their faces.
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Inmates were in groups of about 20 (AP)The prisons seems to take out a few groups of inmates at a time and pairs them with an instructor. The photo shows four instructors standing over their respective groups of about 20 while reading from a handbook.
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The inmates seem to welcome the class as conduct looks quiet and orderly. Inmates are given the handbook at one point and appear to read a passage to their respective cohorts.
The purpose of a social behaviour class is to rehabilitate individuals who have shown poor judgement in social situations prior. Although, it is unclear whether the El, Salvador inmates will gain parole after the classes.
The center was built specifically to house gang-affiliated prisoners (AP)The Terrorism Confinement Center was built by the El Salvador government from July 2022 to January 2023 specifically for gang-affiliated prisoners. In March, 2,000 suspects were among the first inmates to break the prison floors in.
The government announced the mass inmate transfer with a video posted on its social media. It depicts prisoners forced to run barefoot and shackled down a stairway and over the bare ground. The only clothes on them are the prison-issued regulation white shorts.
The justice minister bluntly stated that the suspects would "never return to the streets." The prison was built amid an anti-gang crackdown that saw about 65,000 gang affiliates go to prison.
Some human rights group have said several innocent people were swept up during police raids and wrongfully thrown in the prison, which has gotten reports of abuses.
El Salvador Minister for Justice and Peace Gustavo Villatoro mentioned how the inmates would never see the outside of the prison walls again, even as about 57,000 of them are still awaiting trial and formal charges.
“They are never going to return to the communities, the neighborhoods, the barrios, the cities of our beloved El Salvador,” he said. About 3,500 innocents have been released so far.