Q COSTA RICA — On Monday, Costa Rica began moving prisoners to the new maximum-security complex, located within the walls of the La Reforma Institutional Center, a penitentiary complex located in San Rafael de Alajuela, Costa Rica.
The first 123 prisoners, with shaved heads, wearing orange uniforms and kneeling with their eyes lowered during intake, a scene that drew comparisons with El Salvador’s CECOT prison, which helped inspire the Costa Rican project, arrived at the Centro de Alta Contención y Crimen Organizado (CACCO)—Center for High Containment and Organized Crime.
Among the first group were three men held in pretrial detention on suspicion of involvement in the May 13 killing of police officer Gerson Rosales Cascante in Batán, Limón. Their transfer had been requested by President Laura Fernández.
The CACCO is designed to hold up to 5,100 people across five modules, each one of 17 cells that can hold 60 people. The facility includes surveillance cameras, biometric controls, scanning equipment, and elevated walkways for officers to monitor movement. The government says the prison is intended to strengthen control over high-risk inmates and prevent criminal leaders from directing illegal activity from behind bars.
Authorities plan to move prisoners in stages, with the goal of filling the facility by December. The government also says the new prison will help ease overcrowding. Yet the first transfer is only the opening of a larger test: whether the facility’s security model can meet its stated aims while providing adequate living conditions and care.
That question is already contested. A prisoners’ rights association has filed a constitutional appeal raising concerns about temperature, privacy, safety and medical care, and has asked for transfers to be paused while those issues are reviewed.
The Ministry of Justice says the facility will improve oversight and control. First reports of available images confirm the first arrivals were shaved, but authorities have not clarified whether shaving is mandatory for future arrivals or what exceptions might apply.
CACCO recibe a sus primeros 123 reclusos de alta peligrosidad y comienza operaciones
Este lunes, el Centro de Alta Contención y Crimen Organizado (CACCO) comenzó a funcionar con el traslado de 123 privados de libertad.
https://t.co/rAP7hiIPF0 https://t.co/WtCifXSkix— Esteban Arrieta (@estarrar) October 27, 2026
According to projections from the Ministry of Justice, once the facility reaches its maximum capacity, the country’s prison overcrowding could decrease from 59% to 15%.
The opening therefore carries a message beyond the transfer itself. Orange uniforms, close monitoring and tightly managed intake signal a more visibly restrictive approach to prison security.
Whether that approach reduces criminal activity inside prisons—and whether it does so in a way consistent with the rights the government says it will uphold—will depend on more than the opening-day images.
It will depend on how the prison operates, how conditions are monitored, and how the legal challenges are resolved.