EL SALVADOR: GANG CAGES - GILES CLARKE | Getty Images Reportage

EL SALVADOR: GANG CAGES.

In San Salvador, the two main street gangs are known as 'Mara Salvatruchas' (MS-13) and 'Barrio18' (M18). Whilst there on assignment in May 2013, I joined with a Police Captain and former gang-members who together immersed me into the 'gang truce' situation in a rough suburb located some 20 miles outside of San Salvador. Over the next few days, I spent time with the special police units patrolling the streets of this particularly troubled area where the two main gangs live and operate.In the back of the local police station, I was shown a sweltering enclosure ringed by a high, barbed wire wall, there were three, 12x15 ft cages each full of prisoners, one for each gang and another for 'common criminals'.

In one of the cages I counted thirty five men jammed into a space originally designed to be 72-hour holding cell. At the time of photography, the police captain confirmed that many of those locked in the cages had been held for over a year having been deported from the United States for suspected gang-affiliation ties. Others caged here were deemed too disruptive in a larger prisons and had been moved here to limit their continued gang activity.

The over-powering stench and blistering temperature in the courtyard only intensified the squalid and inhumane nature of this detention. Inmates said they spent most their days pulling apart their clothes, sewing together the hanging hammocks in which they sleep while waiting for the slow wheels of the local justice system to address their cases.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

Policemen question a suspected gang member in the Quezaltepeque district May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. The two main El Salvadorean street gangs are known as 'Mara Salvatruchas' (MS-13) and 'Barrio18' (M18). For close to twenty years, these gangs have raged against each other, but a 'truce' was brokered in 2012 by leading gang members, the government, and the church.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

MS-13 gang members languish in one of the three 'gang cages' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. These overcrowded, 12x15 cages were designed to be 72-hour holding cells for common criminals and the two rival gangs, but many of the individuals have been imprisoned for over a year.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

MS-13 gang members languish in one of the three 'gang cages' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

M18 gang members inside the designated M18 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

An MS-13 gang members gestures the Devils Head insignia inside one of the three 'gang cages' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador..

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

M18 gang members looks out through the bars of the designated M18 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

M18 gang members looks out through the bars of the designated M18 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. Gang leader, 'El Sucre' (not pictured) credits himself in disarming his gang of assault weapons as well as spreading Christianity.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

A prisoner looks out through the bars of his designated 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. These overcrowded, 12x15 cages were designed to be 72-hour holding cells, but many of the individuals have been imprisoned for over a year.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

M18 gang leader and recent 'gang truce' co-signer, 'El Sucre' (C) stands inside the designated M18 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. These overcrowded, 12x15 cages were designed to be 72-hour holding cells, but many of the individuals have been imprisoned for over a year.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

Gang members being fed food inside their designated 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. These overcrowded, 12x15 cages were designed to be 72-hour holding cells, but many of the individuals have been imprisoned for over a year.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

Gang members inside the designated 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. These overcrowded, 12x15 cages were designed to be 72-hour holding cells, but many of the individuals have been imprisoned for over a year. (

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

A prisoner looks out through the bars of his designated 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. .

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

An MS-13 gang members gestures the Devils Head insignia inside one of the three 'gang cages' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

In the common criminals cage, this one-legged, civil war veteran poses for a portrait in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador. These overcrowded, 12x15 cages were designed to be 72-hour holding cells, but many of the individuals have been imprisoned for over a year. This veteran has been locked up for over 5 months for protesting against the government's slashing of his medical benefits.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

M18 gang members inside the designated M18 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - 20 MAY 2013.

M18 gang members inside the designated M18 'gang cage' in the Quezaltepeque police station May 20, 2013 in San Salvador, El Salvador.