If we're paying $20,000 a year to keep each prisoner in El Salvador....

[JohnnyRingo]

...will Bukele see fit to spend the money to house them?
Or has he found a grim way to keep all that money? Those inmates mean nothing to him and I'm sure he never wants to see the day they are released.

El Salvador’s offer to open its prison system to American inmates is an unusual one; generally, criminals are not an import of choice. Bukele, however, is an enterprising businessman as well as a capable politician, and he sees his country’s prison system as an asset that can be profitably leveraged.

The deal runs thus: The U.S. deports criminal illegal aliens to be incarcerated in El Salvador’s Terrorism Containment Center megaprison (also known as CECOT)—in this case, gang members from El Salvador’s own MS-13 as well as those from the dangerous Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua. In return, the U.S. government pays El Salvador $20,000 a year per inmate to house, feed, and most importantly guard them. This is about half the cost that would be expended were the inmates enrolled in the federal system of penitentiaries here in the U.S., a massive savings for the U.S. government. At the same time, with a GDP per capita of less than $6,000, this far exceeds the costs per prisoner expended by El Salvador’s prison system, allowing Bukele to turn a tidy profit on the operation.

This first batch of deportees alone will bring in well over $5 million dollars a year for El Salvador, a sum that Bukele is hoping will increase significantly—and well he might, as El Salvador’s prison system is a serious expense for the country, which is both small and far from wealthy. Currently, the government spends over $200 million annually to maintain CECOT and the rest of El Salvador’s penitentiaries, over 3 percent of the national budget. The addition of American prisoners, and the American dollars that come with them, serve as a way to subsidize the prison system and reduce its significant drain on the country’s resources, freeing up more of the budget for investment and development. The money does also enter the national economy via the salaries of prison guards and administrators and the purchase of food and other supplies for the inmates.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/bukele-makes-prison-pay/

[sop]

1. "If we're paying $20,000 a year to keep each prisoner in El Salvador," I'll wager Trump is getting a kickback.

[Irish_Dem]

3. 100% certain Trump is personally getting something out of the deal.

I think it is way more sinister than a simple kick back.

[bluesbassman]

2. This "system" is so rife with corruption opportunities it's not even funny.

Nevermind the lack of due process, but what is the endgame? Are each of these men, regardless of guilt, sentenced to life imprisonment in that hell hole? Are the American taxpayers on the hook in perpetuity? Where’s the audit fir all this?

JFC, what have we become as a nation.

[JohnnyRingo]

7. Your title says it all.

This is even beyond mob activity. The New York Mafia wouldn't be able to handle this many hits.
They probably have enough decency not to anyway.

[Demsrule86]

4. No one should be sent to what is essentially a concentration murder camp...

And all who participate from Trump and his buddies to the airplane pilots to the flight attendants should all face crimes against humanity charges...and rot in prison.

[Ocelot II]

5. Set up a GoFundMe, raise $20K, buy him back.

I wonder if Bukele would return prisoners if he were paid for them?

[Butterflylady]

6. Was he even paid yet?

We all know how f47 doesn't pay people.

[JohnnyRingo]

8. It's not his money.

It's ours. Sadly.

[mzmolly]

9. In those conditions?

What a rip-off.