[narrator]

Over-reliance on prison seems to have worked astonishingly well for El Salvador. If your metric is murder rates then it's probably a world record in terms of change in murder rate from the highest in the world (106 per 100k in 2015) to one of the lowest (2.4 per 100k in 2023).

[V__]

> Since then, more than 72,000 people have been arrested for being alleged gang members or affiliates.

> thousands have been unjustly detained without due process and dozens have died in prisons.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-prison-gangs-bukele-4...

[wongarsu]

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to have a lot of negative ripple effects in a couple of years. Think of all the children now growing up as parents: how many of those are going to become criminals.

Not saying El Salvador went the wrong path. Sometimes you need extreme measures to get out of extreme problems, and at least in the near-term it obviously created great results. But I would withhold judgements on the applicability to healthier states until we had a chance to observe any long-term effects.

[dfedbeef]

I think the US figured out that imprisoning gang members reduces the murder rate a while ago, not to rain on your parade.

[dfedbeef]

Wait until all the innocent people who got swept up in those crackdowns end up hanging out with gang members for 5 years, then get released :)

[happytiger]

Those statistics are disturbing precisely because it’s been just so profoundly effective. I was blown away. The whole country has reversed course in just 3 years.

[zabzonk]

link?