section_path: Background/Terrorism Confinement Center
section_name: Terrorism Confinement Center
paragraph_text: Terrorism Confinement Center
  
  Prisoners are held in large concrete cells that the Associated Press reports can house 65 to 70 individuals, but in videos lack enough bunks for everyone. The BBC reports that with access severely restricted and journalists only allowed on choreographed tours, the number of inmates per cell is not clear, that some rights groups put it at 80 while others say it can go above 150, and that when asked, the prison's director responded "where you can fit 10 people, you can fit 20." The cells are furnished with four-story bunks of bare metal without mattresses or sheets, two toilets, two sinks (reported by CNN as a cement basin and plastic bucket for washing, and a jug of drinking water) and two Bibles. The cells are artificially lit 24 hours a day and the temperature can reach 35 °C (95 °F) in daytime. Prisoners are allowed to leave their cells for 30 minutes a day for group exercise in the hallway. There are no visits, letters, workshops, or prison educational programs, and prisoners are not allowed outside. Food is served without utensils, to keep them from being fashioned into weapons. Occasionally, prisoners who have gained a level of trust give motivational talks, which CNN reported as Bible readings during the hallway half-hour.
  
  CNN said two sources told it the deportees' situation is less regimented, but with the same facilities. The prison director said of the deportees, "there are no privileges."
  
  El Salvador's Minister of Justice has said those held at CECOT would never return to their communities, and the BBC in 2024 cited Miguel Sarre, formerly of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, as warning that CECOT appeared to be used "to dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty," referring to the fact that no-one had so far been released from the jail. Cristosal, which the BBC described as El Salvador's primary human rights organization, has documented torture and more than 150 deaths in custody in the country during the ongoing state of exception. Amnesty International has accused Salvadoran authorities of "a systematic policy of torture towards all those detained under the state of emergency on suspicion of being gang members," leading to deaths in custody, and of other prisoners dying due to inhumane conditions and denial of medical care and medicine.
  
  Prisoners are held in large concrete cells that the Associated Press reports can house 65 to 70 individuals, but in videos lack enough bunks for everyone. The BBC reports that with access severely restricted and journalists only allowed on choreographed tours, the number of inmates per cell is not clear, that some rights groups put it at 80 while others say it can go above 150, and that when asked, the prison's director responded "where you can fit 10 people, you can fit 20." The cells are furnished with four-story bunks of bare metal without mattresses or sheets, two toilets, two sinks (reported by CNN as a cement basin and plastic bucket for washing, and a jug of drinking water) and two Bibles. The cells are artificially lit 24 hours a day and the temperature can reach 35 °C (95 °F) in daytime. Prisoners are allowed to leave their cells for 30 minutes a day for group exercise in the hallway. There are no visits, letters, workshops, or prison educational programs, and prisoners are not allowed outside. Food is served without utensils, to keep them from being fashioned into weapons. Occasionally, prisoners who have gained a level of trust give motivational talks, which CNN reported as Bible readings during the hallway half-hour.
  
  CNN said two sources told it the deportees' situation is less regimented, but with the same facilities. The prison director said of the deportees, "there are no privileges."
  
  El Salvador's Minister of Justice has said those held at CECOT would never return to their communities, and the BBC in 2024 cited Miguel Sarre, formerly of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, as warning that CECOT appeared to be used "to dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty," referring to the fact that no-one had so far been released from the jail. Cristosal, which the BBC described as El Salvador's primary human rights organization, has documented torture and more than 150 deaths in custody in the country during the ongoing state of exception. Amnesty International has accused Salvadoran authorities of "a systematic policy of torture towards all those detained under the state of emergency on suspicion of being gang members," leading to deaths in custody, and of other prisoners dying due to inhumane conditions and denial of medical care and medicine.