Prison reform in El Salvador

Reform initiatives

• State of Exception and mass incarceration under Bukele

  sentencing · active · 2022–ongoing

  Since March 2022 El Salvador has been under a continuous 'state of exception' that suspends key procedural rights, allowing mass arrest of suspected gang members. The prison population has tripled, making El Salvador the world's most-incarcerated country (per capita) by a wide margin. The mega-prison CECOT, opened in 2023, holds 40,000+ people in conditions widely criticised by Human Rights Watch and the UN.