Inside the world’s deadliest prison, where the director has described conditions as ‘hell’, the lights are never switched off.
Once labelled the “murder capital of the world”, El Salvador now hosts what is considered the planet’s largest prison complex. Up to 40,000 inmates described as some of the country’s most dangerous offenders are housed there in severe conditions that campaigners argue fall short of international human-rights norms.
Sprawling across an area said to equal 32 soccer fields, the facility sits beneath an electronic security dome. Authorities say that makes it “impossible for anything to be smuggled in”, but it also means mobile phone reception is entirely cut off within the prison.
A new Channel 5 documentary that goes inside CECOT — the Terrorism Confinement Center — examines daily life in the prison, including punishment measures such as a concrete hole where inmates can be shut away for as long as 30 days if they break the rules.
In Richard Madeley on Murder Row, prison director Belarmino García says the lights inside CECOT are kept on continuously — and that policy is not set to change.
He said: “We have a 24/7 lighting system.
“It’s simply part of the protocol, I need to be able to see what they are doing.”
García also explains that prisoners sleep on tiered metal bunks, without mattresses, pillows or blankets.
Inside the cells, the only permitted personal item is a bible. Beyond that, inmates are barred from screens, books and newspapers, while conversation is tightly restricted.
CECOT was constructed as part of President Nayib Bukele’s 2023 anti-gang campaign. It largely holds alleged gang members and other high-risk offenders, including people linked to MS-13 and Barrio 18.
One prisoner, interviewed for the programme, says he had ‘no regrets’ about killing 30 innocent people — and claims he would do it again if he were released.
Release, however, is not expected. Many inmates are serving stacked sentences totalling more than 700 years.
Despite the heavy security measures, prisoners are still counted every day. They spend 23 and a half hours in their cells, leaving only briefly under supervision.
During their 30-minute period outside the cell, inmates perform calisthenics and listen to passages read from the bible.
Meals are basic and repetitive: the same food is served twice a day, every day — rice and beans.
Richard Madeley on Murder Row is now available to stream on Channel 5.