Salvadoran Inmates.Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced yesterday that 48,000 prisoners in the trust phase are being trained in different trades to carry out prison work and pay off their debt to society.
President Bukele shared a video highlighting the transformation of the country’s penitentiary system, where non-violent offenders have access to training programs.
Gang members will spend their entire lives in prison. But non-violent criminals can receive training and repay their debt to society. We’ve already started with the first 48,000. Nayib Bukele.
The video showcases a carpentry program at the “Santa Ana Penitentiary Industrial Center,” where inmates craft stands and furniture used by the government agricultural markets to display fruits and vegetables.
Bukele explained that this program has begun with 48,000 non-violent inmates who are not gang members. “Gang members will spend their entire lives in prison,” remarked Bukele’s Message.
Inmates in this program learn trades and also restore hospitals, schools, and police facilities, as well as contribute to cleaning beaches, streets, and parks, among other activities.
The Salvadoran government launched a program called Zero Leisure (Cero Ocio), which provides training opportunities to inmates in the confidence phase in carpentry workshops, metal structures, masonry, agricultural activities, and mechanics, among other trades.
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“With the skills of the Zero Leisure (Cero Ocio) detainees, we continue to serve the population, as ordered by President Nyib Bukele. We are making desks, restoring hospitals and police facilities, and contributing to cleaning days, among other things,” communicated Penal Center’s director Osiris Luna Meza last year.
“We prisoners are proud to be part of President Nayib Bukele’s initiative to create agricultural markets. We contribute with our work to the manufacture of new stands, such as fruit and vegetable displays for the entire population in different parts of the country,” declared one of the inmates in the video.
