Costa Rica’s mega-prison receives first inmates

What the report says

Costa Rica’s new maximum-security mega-prison, the High-Containment Center Against Organized Crime (CACCO), has received its first group of inmates, according to the country’s Justice Ministry and reporting by Al Jazeera. The facility is located on the outskirts of San Jose and was inaugurated by President Laura Fernandez on Oct. 15, after being built with help from the Salvadoran government.

Authorities said 123 inmates were transferred into the prison, where officials released images showing prisoners in orange clothing inside the facility. The prison cost about $35 million and is designed to hold as many as 5,100 people, which the ministry says should help ease overcrowding in the wider prison system. Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar described the opening as part of a new chapter in the country’s penitentiary policy.

The prison is being presented by Fernandez’s administration as part of a tougher approach to organized crime. Costa Rica has seen a rise in violence in recent years tied by authorities to drug trafficking and criminal disputes over routes and markets. Al Jazeera noted that the country, long considered among the safer in Latin America, recorded historically high homicide totals in recent years, though the report did not attribute those figures to any new source beyond official context.

The CACCO also reflects a broader regional trend, with some Latin American leaders looking to the prison model used in El Salvador as they pursue harsher security policies.