Rival gangsters forced to share cells in bid to cut jail murder rate in El Salvador – The Times, Thetimes.co.uk

Gang members in El Salvador’s prisons will be forced to share cells with their rivals in a high-risk policy designed to reduce crime.

The move follows a sudden spike in murders in the country, which police say are mostly directed from prisons and involved more than 50 killings between Friday and Sunday.

Mixing members of different gangs in cells has often resulted in violence, but the government said its new policy was a response to the deterioration of law and order nationally.

“We have taken the decision to mix and imprison in cells the different groups of the criminal gangs that are causing so much damage to the country, ”Osiris Luna, the deputy security minister, said. He said the plan was designed to break lines