![Work programs for inmates like the Mara 18 gang members cost money, and the prison world in Latin America remains an upside-down, alternative universe with little public or political will to right it. “Our budget does not have a lot of resources,” said Nelson Rauda, the director of prisons in El Salvador. “If the choice is to build a children’s hospital or a prison, which do you think is going to get done?”
Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
Also related: Inmate’s Lament: ‘Rather Be Dead Than Here’ [NY Times]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0yk4efpAn1qzs6yjo1_1280.png)
Work programs for inmates like the Mara 18 gang members cost money, and the prison world in Latin America remains an upside-down, alternative universe with little public or political will to right it. “Our budget does not have a lot of resources,” said Nelson Rauda, the director of prisons in El Salvador. “If the choice is to build a children’s hospital or a prison, which do you think is going to get done?”
Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
Also related: Inmate’s Lament: ‘Rather Be Dead Than Here’ [NY Times]
