Prison Reform

Honduras's Congress is considering a proposal to establish workshops in lower and medium-security prisons where inmates would manufacture school desks and uniforms for public schools, offering inmates labor opportunities and skills training while contributing to education.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano announced that security crackdowns targeting crime-ridden neighborhoods will expand across all of Honduras, including San Pedro Sula and Choloma, and must be sustained permanently rather than conducted sporadically.

Honduras's National Congress completed approval this week of four reform packages totaling over 50 changes to criminal and prison law aimed at gangs and organized crime, including mandatory longer sentences, stricter prison regimes, expanded investigative powers, and a new elite prison force.

Lawmakers approved a specialized penitentiary unit staffed by trained INP personnel and security-force members to oversee maximum-security prisons, handle high-risk transfers, and respond to riots, escapes, and other grave incidents.

Honduras is forming a special penitentiary force drawn from current and new prison agents and military police to take control of all prisons, starting with maximum-security facilities, as part of recent security reforms.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano visited the abandoned La Acequia prison to evaluate whether it should be rehabilitated or replaced with a new facility elsewhere in Honduras, with a decision expected within days.

Congress is weighing adoption of El Salvador's harsh detention approach (CECOT), but human-rights groups and legal experts warn the strategy risks prioritizing mass incarceration without addressing root causes of violence or protecting fundamental rights.

Marco Paz, president of Congress's Security Commission, says lawmakers have passed anti-extortion reforms, given the security council power to designate criminal groups as terrorist organizations, and reformed prison regimes, while acknowledging that deputies have received threats for their action.

Congress is analyzing a proposal to allow low- to medium-risk inmates and those with advanced age or chronic illnesses to serve the remainder of their sentences at home under electronic monitoring, aimed at reducing prison overcrowding.

Nationalist congressman Kilvett Bertrand announced that Congress will consider security measures modeled on El Salvador's approach, including restrictions on gang-related tattoos, harsher penalties for minors committing serious crimes, and a possible maximum-security prison in Naco, Santa Bárbara.

Marco Paz, president of Congress's Security Commission, announced a proposed initiative to allow inmates classified as low or medium risk, as well as elderly prisoners and those with chronic illnesses, to serve the remainder of their sentences at home under electronic monitoring.

Honduran congressional security committees will travel to El Salvador to study the CECOT high-security prison model as lawmakers weigh penal reforms to combat organized crime.

A new law requiring individual isolation and maximum-security confinement for prisoners identified as members of terrorist organizations, gangs, or maras took effect after publication in the official gazette on September 26.

Congress passed sweeping legislation naming three criminal organizations as terrorist groups and imposing strict isolation, technology bans, and severe movement restrictions on inmates convicted of terrorism or gang membership.

Congress and the National Penitentiary Institute met to discuss and approve reforms to strengthen security in Honduras's prisons, including special controls on communications and maximum-security transfers for members of organizations designated as terrorist groups.

Honduras's National Penitentiary Institute will pilot electronic wallets in prisons to replace cash in inmate canteens, following an alleged embezzlement of 8 million lempiras (about $320,000) at Támara prison.