00:00From murder capital to the world's safest country, at what cost?
00:03Welcome.
00:04Today, we're talking about a prison where the shortest sentence is 60 years, and the longest is 1,000 years.
00:09This is the Sakot Mega Prison in El Salvador.
00:12A hundred men crammed into one cell.
00:14Two toilets.
00:1523 and a half hours locked inside every day.
00:18No sunlight.
00:19No visits.
00:20They eat with their hands.
00:22And if you act up, there's an isolation box.
00:24All concrete, no windows, pitch black.
00:27No one has lasted 10 days in there.
00:30Murderous gangsters walk in.
00:31A few days later, they're trembling like lambs.
00:34Three years since it opened.
00:36Zero riots.
00:37Before this prison existed, El Salvador had one of the highest murder rates on earth, over 100 homicides per 100
00:42,000 people.
00:43After the prison opened.
00:45It dropped to 1.3.
00:46The only people who ever walked out alive were 200 Venezuelan migrants.
00:50In March 2025, the US put them on planes and sent them here.
00:54Four months later, after negotiations, they were sent back.
00:57First thing they did.
00:59Talk.
01:00About being beaten.
01:01About sleep deprivation.
01:03About being forced to kneel for hours.
01:05On day one, someone told them, you will never leave this place alive.
01:08The Salvadoran government denies everything.
01:11Lock the doors, they say.
01:13Never opened again.
01:14The remaining tens of thousands.
01:16Not a single one has been released.
01:18And no one plans to.
01:19The minimum sentence here is 60 years.
01:22You go in at 20, you get out at 80.
01:24The maximum.
01:251,000 years.
01:27To put that in perspective, when the Xia dynasty was founded, you got a thousand year sentence.
01:31You'd serve through the Shang dynasty, the Zhou dynasty, the Qin dynasty, all the way to the People's Republic.
01:3610 years after that.
01:38Parole.
01:39But here's the thing, El Salvador has no death penalty.
01:42So this is how they say, forever, without saying it.
01:45You're not sentenced to never leave.
01:47You're sentenced to never live long enough.
01:49Once you understand this, the design of this prison makes complete sense.
01:52It's not built to hold.
01:54D people.
01:55It's built to erase them.
01:57Rows of steel bunks stacked like supermarket shelves.
02:00No mattress.
02:01No pillow.
02:02A white sheet thrown over the metal frame, that's your bed.
02:05Shaved head on arrival, reshoved every two weeks.
02:08Your entire possessions, a white tracksuit, flip-flops, a towel, a sheet.
02:12It fits in less than a shoebox.
02:14During the 30 minutes of free time each day, what can you do?
02:18Exercise with guards.
02:19Listen to Bible readings.
02:20If you're not religious, well, that's all there is.
02:24The rest of the time, sit.
02:27No books.
02:28No magazines.
02:29No TV.
02:31Not even work.
02:32This last one is the cruelest.
02:34In most prisons, inmates work to stay sane.
02:36Here, they don't.
02:38Because if you work, you feel useful.
02:40If you feel useful, you start planning for tomorrow.
02:43And in this place, tomorrow is not allowed.
02:45The ceiling tells the whole story.
02:47According to reports, sensors are hidden in the gaps.
02:50So if someone tries to hang themselves with a sheet, they're caught.
02:54Think about that logic, you can't leave, and you can't leave on your own terms.
02:57You're only allowed to stay.
02:59But let's step outside the prison walls.
03:01Today in El Salvador, there are crowds of mothers standing outside the prison.
03:05Standing outside courthouses.
03:07Holding photos.
03:09Standing all day.
03:10They don't know where their sons are.
03:12They don't know if they're alive.
03:13They don't even know what they were arrested for.
03:16How did a country get here?
03:17It started with one weekend.
03:19March 26, 2020.
03:21A Saturday.
03:22In a single day, gangs killed 62 people on the streets.
03:26One day.
03:271,440 minutes.
03:29One person every 23 minutes.
03:31This wasn't a war.
03:32This was Saturday.
03:34By the end of the weekend, 87 dead.
03:36The bloodiest three days since the Civil War.
03:39The next day, Congress declared a state of emergency.
03:42Arrests without warrants.
03:43No explanation needed.
03:45Hold them for 15 days.
03:47The emergency was supposed to last 30 days.
03:49It's been going for over four years.
03:51In that time, more than 80,000 people have been arrested.
03:5480,000.
03:56In a country owned.
03:57F6 million.
03:59That's roughly one out of every 70 people.
04:01Open your phone's contact list.
04:03By that ratio, several names would be gone.
04:05With so many arrests, they needed a new prison.
04:08This mega prison was built in seven months.
04:10You may have seen the transfer photos online.
04:12Hundreds of men, shaved heads, barefoot, sitting in a row, hands behind their heads.
04:17From above, it doesn't look like people.
04:19It looks like neatly stacked cargo.
04:21The guards wear masks.
04:23Not for style, to avoid being recognized.
04:25They're afraid of what happens after work.
04:27And here's the hardest part.
04:29Out of those 80,000 arrests, not everyone belongs there.
04:32Tattoos.
04:34Arrested.
04:34Live next to a gang member.
04:36Arrested.
04:37Called a wrong number.
04:39Arrested.
04:40Some reports say police had arrest quotas.
04:42Miss your quota.
04:44Pick up a random kid off the street.
04:46The government later released thousands.
04:48The fact that they were released at all says everything.
04:50And some never made it out.
04:52Human rights organizations report over 300 deaths in custody since the emergency began.
04:56The government denies abuse.
04:58But now you know why those mothers are standing outside the prison, unable to even say what their sons did
05:02wrong.
05:03You might think this sounds extreme.
05:05Say that online, and many will agree.
05:07Say it on the streets of San Salvador, and someone might ask, you ever lived here?
05:11In 2024, the president was up for re-election.
05:148 out of 10 people voted for him.
05:16Why?
05:17Because of what life was like before.
05:19Back then, there was an invisible map in El Salvador.
05:22A teenager going to school had to plot the route in their head.
05:25Take one wrong street, you might not come back.
05:27In 2010, someone stopped a bus, doused it with gasoline, and lit it on fire.
05:32Because the driver didn't pay a toll.
05:34More than a dozen people burned alive.
05:36So when someone tells Salvadorans, this is inhumane, many respond, and what about before?
05:40Was that humane?
05:42This is the hardest part of the story.
05:44There is no comfortable answer.
05:45The streets are safer.
05:47Kids can walk to school.
05:49People go out at night.
05:50That's true.
05:51And those mothers outside the prison are also true.
05:54Both things are real at the same time.
05:56So I won't answer this question for you.
05:58I'll just remind you, the emergency was supposed to be 30 days.
06:02It's been 4 years.
06:03Temporary things, once they work, have a way of becoming permanent.
06:07Let's zoom out.
06:08The prison sits at the foot of a volcano.
06:10That volcano has been there for millions of years.
06:13It saw the Maya come.
06:14It saw them leave.
06:16It saw Spanish ships.
06:17It saw war.
06:19Now there's a slab of concrete at its base.
06:21The design life of that concrete is longer than most nations have existed.
06:25Inside, people have been sentenced to a thousand years.
06:27In a thousand years, no one will remember what they did.
06:30No one will know if they were guilty.
06:32The volcano will still be there.
06:34It doesn't care who's right.
06:36And in the same country, at the same time, people are painting colorful murals over old gang symbols.
06:41Children are running underneath.
06:42Running fast.
06:44On one side, a wall covered in art.
06:46On the other, a 9 meter wall, electrified.
06:49A country with the cleanest streets and the deepest dark rooms.
06:52Built by the same hands, in the same year.
06:54And every time it's finished, we truly believe it's the last time.
