Inside the world’s most dangerous prison’s punishment hole and what it smells like
A celebrity broadcaster recently visited the world’s most dangerous prison, situated in El Salvador, where he discovered a pitch-black room, known as the ‘punishment hole’, emitting a bizarre foul stench.
Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, known as CECOT, is a 57-acre, maximum-security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
The large-scale operation was opened by the Salvadoran government in January 2023 and has a jaw-dropping 40,000 inmate capacity, with convicts allegedly being classed as ‘terrorists’ who ‘will never leave’ by officials.
Human Rights Watch has reported that inmates, who are kept in close proximity on steel bunk beds for 23 and a half hours per day, are being denied communication with their relatives and lawyers.
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Other activist groups have also criticised the prison—where US President Donald Trump sent Venezuelan detainees last year—following abuse, torture, and sexual violence allegations.
According to a new Channel 5 documentary, inmates are greeted by prison director Belarmino García with a three-word phrase: ‘Welcome to hell’.
After they pass through the doors, they must sleep without mattresses, aren’t allowed to speak to fellow convicts, and are only given a bible to browse.
Those who live inside the mega jail, erected as part of President Nayib Bukele's crackdown on gangs, are allowed out of their colossal cells for just 30 minutes per day to practice callisthenics and learn bible passages.
If they are caught breaking strict prison rules or fighting with fellow inmates, then it’s possible the detainee’s will be sent to tiny isolation cells for up to 30 days.
This Morning host Richard Madeley, who led the Channel 5 documentary Richard Madeley: Inside the World’s Mega Prison, recently gave insight into what these isolation rooms were like.
According to the star, who entered one of the cells wearing a night vision camera, you have to ‘grope your way to the stone sink here and you have to grope your way to the toilet and somehow find the bowl that you need to flush it’.
“This is the one place in this jail that does have an odour. There’s a certain odour here I can’t really describe,” he stated. “It’s fear.”
Madeley claimed that the isolation chambers made the main prison ‘seem like freedom’, adding: "Boy, you would do exactly what you are told.”
It’s understood that there are 96 isolation cells inside the prison walls.
However, García claims they are very rarely, if ever, used.
When asked whether he believed the conditions inside the establishment were ‘cruel’, the El Salvadorian director asked Madeley and his crew to leave the property.
“I think I may have overstepped the mark,” the British TV favourite said. “My questioning led to some questioning. I’m still hoping to see much more of the prison but for now, we’ve been shown the door.”
Those who reside inside the jail, dubbed ‘the Alcatraz of Central America,’ have a 1,800-calorie diet to adhere to.
Menu items include basics such as beans, rice, and pasta, hard-boiled eggs - all of which must be eaten with their hands, as per the BBC.
"Any utensil can be [fashioned into] a deadly weapon,” García reasoned.
Richard Madeley: Inside the World’s Mega Prison is now streaming on YouTube.
Topics: El Salvador, Crime, Film and TV
Ella Scott