El Salvador · Tecoluca
Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT)
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT)
Step-by-step guidance using the El Salvador system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) is a correctional facility operated by the Dirección General de Centros Penales (DGCP) in the department of Tecoluca, El Salvador. Official capacity: 40,000 inmates. World's largest single prison; opened February 2023; houses MS-13 and Barrio 18 members under Bukele's Territorial Control Plan. El Salvador's prison system has been under a State of Exception since March 2022, with restricted access for monitoring bodies.
Capacity
40,000
Current population
—
Occupancy
—
Year opened
—
Operational
Facility profile
Operator
—
Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
—
Region
Tecoluca
Security level
—
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
pursuant to the 1789 Alien Enemies Act have been sent to the Center for Terrorism Confinement, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The prison was first announced for a capacity of 20,000 detainees. The Salvadoran government later doubled its reported capacity, to 40,000. As Human Rights Watch explained to the UN Human Rights Committee in July 2024, the population size raises concerns that prison authorities will not be able to provide individualized treatment to detainees, thereby contravening the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. 3. People held in CECOT, as well as in other prisons in El Salvador, are denied communication with their relatives and lawyers, and only appear before courts in online hearings, often in groups of several hundred detainees at the same time. The Salvadoran government has described people held in CECOT as “terrorists,” and has said that they “will never leave.” Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have been released from that prison. The government of El Salvador denies human rights groups access to its prisons and has only allowed journalists and social media influencers to visit CECOT under highly controlled circumstances. In videos produced during these visits, Salvadoran authorities are seen saying that prisoners only “leave the cell for 30 minutes a day” and that some are held in solitary confinement cells, which are completely dark. 04. While CECOT is likely to [...] (per Human Rights Watch)
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
No major issues documented in our database.
Contact & address
No public contact details available.
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 0/30
- Oversight reports
- 1/30
- Structural flags
- 0/15
- Death signals
- 0/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
What the score is responding to:
- · 1 oversight report in the last 5 years
Compared to other facilities in El Salvador
33 peersReports
- HRW1 Jan 2025
pursuant to the 1789 Alien Enemies Act have been sent to the Center for Terrorism Confinement, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The prison was first announced for a capacity of 20,000 detainees. The Salvadoran government later doubled its reported capacity, to 40,000. As Human Rights Watch explained to the UN Human Rights Committee in July 2024, the population size raises concerns that prison authorities will not be able to provide individualized treatment to detainees, thereby contravening the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. 3. People held in CECOT, as well as in other prisons in El Salvador, are denied communication with their relatives and lawyers, and only appear before courts in online hearings, often in groups of several hundred detainees at the same time. The Salvadoran government has described people held in CECOT as “terrorists,” and has said that they “will never leave.” Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have been released from that prison. The government of El Salvador denies human rights groups access to its prisons and has only allowed journalists and social media influencers to visit CECOT under highly controlled circumstances. In videos produced during these visits, Salvadoran authorities are seen saying that prisoners only “leave the cell for 30 minutes a day” and that some are held in solitary confinement cells, which are completely dark. 04. While CECOT is likely to [...] (per Human Rights Watch)
Data completeness
42%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- DGCP — Dirección General de Centros Penales
- Wikipedia: List of prisons in El Salvador
- Reuters — El Salvador inaugurates the Americas' biggest jail
- DGCP — Centros Penales de El Salvador — Dirección General de Centros Penales (DGCP), El Salvador
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.