Costa Rica’s new maximum-security prison held more than 600 inmates by Tuesday, eight days after the first transfers. Guards there have already found weapons made from eating utensils, and the government says inmates who make them will lose them. The Ministry of Justice and Peace confirmed the population on Tuesday. The High Containment Center for Organized Crime (CACCO), in San Rafael de Alajuela, received its first 123 inmates on Oct. 26.
According to the ministry, the people now held there include inmates linked to organized crime, homicide and femicide cases, as well as the killings of Public Force and Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) officers. During an inspection on Saturday, Oct. 31, the Penitentiary Police found sharpened plastic spoons and a homemade blade made of glass in one of the dormitories.
Justice and Peace Minister Gabriel Aguilar Vargas said inmates who turn utensils into weapons will have those utensils confiscated. He also said foam mattresses that inmates destroy will not be replaced, and that guards will keep inspecting dormitories, corridors and walkways. It is not the first disciplinary case at the facility. Aguilar reported an incident on Oct. 26, the first day of transfers, without identifying the inmate involved.
Under the prison’s rules, inmates who commit infractions can be moved to isolation cells within their module. Prison authorities can order isolation for up to 48 hours, and any longer period requires a judge’s approval, Aguilar said. The CACCO is designed for 5,100 inmates in five modules of 1,020 each. Each module has 17 cells of about 90 square meters (970 square feet), holding up to 60 people apiece.
At just over 600 inmates, the prison is at about 12% of that capacity. The government put its construction cost at 16.774 billion colones. At the inauguration in mid-October, Aguilar told the country’s crime bosses that the party was over. The government has promised uniforms, constant electronic monitoring, blocked illicit phone calls and no inmate leaders, and it has sharply limited conjugal visits.
The country’s highest-profile prisoners will not be moved there. Aguilar said on Oct. 27 that inmates with economic power and the ability to recruit others could quickly build new criminal structures in shared cells. They will stay in individual maximum-security cells at the La Reforma prison complex.
The prison has drawn support from Washington, where the US Embassy praised the new facility in October. It opens as violent deaths remain high. OIJ data show 706 homicides so far this year, compared with 745 at the same point in 2025, a drop of 5.2%. The first 48 hours of November brought 10 killings, compared with seven in the same period last year. Limón province has recorded the most homicides in 2026, with 185, and firearms were used in 567 of the year’s killings, according to the OIJ.
