A report in Diario El Salvador noted that a group of 900 inmates in a trust phase are making 500 desks a day for the country’s schools, while the participation of a symphonic orchestra and a choir made up of inmates in the monument to “El Salvador del Mundo” was recently aired, which is part of some projects for their incorporation into society.

The inmates of the Zero Idle Plan are trained in different workshops at the Santa Ana Penitentiary Industrial Complex and their productions are distributed in all 5,150 educational centers nationwide that are part of the public system.

The newspaper toured the workshops of the complex, where the prisoners, who are not gang members, work on the mass production of desks.

Prison Warden Samuel Díaz noted that the inmates also participate in the construction and remodeling of educational centers.

He explained that among the prisoners are those who have skills in industrial painting, welding and carpentry, while those who lack those skills are trained for three months in theoretical and practical training.

According to authorities, the current penitentiary system provides the opportunity for inmates in the trust phase to join job training courses to give back to society, with their labor, to improve conditions in public buildings such as hospitals, educational centers, police stations, sports, tourism and cultural venues, among others.

Despite the progress being made, re-education is still a pending issue that, according to experts, should have a variant for thousands of people detained for their alleged participation in gang activities.

According to statistics, around 80 percent of inmates in this group, which totals more than 75,000, are young people, a remarkable figure in a country where labor is not very abundant.

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