Есть ли пытки в американских тюрмах?
Executive summary
Yes — multiple recent reports and advocacy groups document practices in and connected to U.S. custody that rights monitors characterize as torture or torture-like abuse, including systematic beatings and prolonged solitary confinement in U.S.-run or U.S.-linked detentions; Human Rights Watch and major outlets report that the U.S. transferred hundreds of migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT where they were tortured (252–280 people referenced), and U.S. civil-society groups point to ongoing torture and sexual violence inside American prisons and immigrant jails [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. Historical U.S. torture programs: the established baseline
The United States has a documented history of state-sanctioned interrogation practices and secret detention that human-rights groups consider torture: post‑9/11 CIA “black site” interrogations and abuses at Guantánamo and other facilities are widely chronicled and remain part of the public record about U.S. policy choices that normalized cruel techniques (available sources discuss the legacy and scale of that program and its consequences) [6] [7].
2. Recent U.S. transfers to CECOT and credible findings of torture
Human Rights Watch, The New York Times and The Guardian document that in March–April 2025 the U.S. sent hundreds of Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s CECOT mega‑prison where detainees reported routine beatings, sexual assault, incommunicado detention and other abuses; reporting cites roughly 252 released men and groups tracking up to 280 initially transferred, and characterizes the abuse as systematic and amounting to torture [1] [8] [2] [3].
3. Accountability and U.S. complicity debates
Reporting and human‑rights groups explicitly accuse U.S. officials of complicity by transferring people to a place with known patterns of abuse; advocates call for disclosure of transfer agreements and suspension of assistance to Salvadoran security institutions until accountability measures are adopted [9] [8]. The news coverage frames this as both a human‑rights and a policy failure tied to U.S. deportation practices [1] [3].
4. Torture and ill-treatment inside U.S. prisons and immigrant jails
U.S.-based organizations and investigative outlets document widespread abuses inside American prisons and immigration detention: the Center for Constitutional Rights collects first‑hand accounts of beatings, rape, prolonged solitary confinement and medical neglect; Amnesty and Truthout describe conditions at Florida migrant jails (including a so‑called “Alligator Alcatraz” and use of a 2×2 “box”) that rights monitors say “amount to torture or other ill‑treatment” [4] [5]. Civil‑society groups have long cataloged sexual violence, restraints and other practices inside U.S. facilities [10] [11].
5. Legal and definitional tensions: what counts as “torture”
Sources show dispute over labels: some watchdogs and UN experts apply the legal standard of torture to prolonged solitary confinement, sexual violence and systematic beatings; others treat these as “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” or emphasize the need for legal investigations and prosecutions. Reporting highlights calls for banning solitary beyond 15 days and for investigating state actors [11] [4] [5].
6. Scale, secrecy and the limits of public reporting
Available sources document specific programs, high‑profile transfers, and numerous NGO dossiers, but comprehensive national statistics tying a precise number of U.S. prison‑based torture cases are not provided in this set of reports. Advocacy groups and investigative outlets emphasize that secrecy and weak oversight — especially in immigration detention and extraordinary renditions — impede a full accounting [2] [4] [5].
7. Competing perspectives and political context
Mainstream investigative outlets (The New York Times, The Guardian, Mother Jones) and human‑rights groups present converging accounts that U.S. transfers led to torture in CECOT [1] [8] [3]. Government perspectives defending those policies or denying complicity are noted in the reporting as responses but are not detailed in the available sources; the Salvadoran government, per HRW reporting, denied “detention” in response to UN inquiries [9].
8. What readers should take away and what remains uncertain
Fact: credible, documented instances exist where people under U.S. custody or transferred by U.S. authorities experienced treatment characterized as torture by rights monitors [1] [3] [2] [4] [5]. Limitations: the provided sources do not offer a complete national inventory or definitive legal rulings for every allegation; they do show patterns that experts and NGOs say require independent investigation and accountability [6] [11].