Inside the World’s Most Unconventional Prison | El Salvador Prisons (youtube.com)
They send common criminals to this prison, where they are working or studying basically all the time. There is little leisure time (sports and 1 hour of movies that are approved and ?censored). Age 18-59. The professors who teach the classes inside are also criminals but who know about special skills. They use cameras mounted beside doors to monitor faces so people go where they are programmed to go (to classes etc).
They talk about how before Zero Ocio (before Bukele), the prisons were covered in grafitti and there was a lot of crime, contraband, and killings inside the prison, and also gang leaders who were inside would send orders for crimes to the outside.
Each day the prisoners work inside, they are credited 2 days of their sentense.
The prison is self-sufficient in many things, because, for example, the metal cabinets are welded inside.
They have a university inside the prison where they can earn a college degree in business admin.
They do mechanic work on government vehicles.
They have a huge factory where thousands (capacity of 2100, ie 6300 per 24 hours) of inmates work at counters, sewing uniforms for prisoners as well as for uniforms for outside (public government workers' uniforms). 6000-8000 units per day (one unit per person?).
They are industrial complexes. In another factory they make desks and chairs (for schools etc). The desks are not sold to schools, but distributed by the government.
They have fish farms in manmade lakes.
After a while proving themselves, a prisoner can become ‘a person of confidence’ and moved to a large open air farm in a big green valley. Security is less. The produce food for the prisons. They're sort of tested at the farm.
There is no internet.
Gang criminals are sent to CECOT. Some of the people in the common prison worked for gangs but were basically obliged to work for the gangs and are not considered gang members.