People disagree with you not of opinion but because you are factually wrong.
"Evidence shows lengthy prison terms do not have a significant deterrent effect on crime" https://ccla.org/criminal-justice/no-longer-prison-sentences...
"Research Shows That Long Prison Sentences Don’t Actually Improve Safety" https://www.vera.org/news/research-shows-that-long-prison-se...
For example this was going around for a long time:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/debu...
Then this happened in 2025 when there was a crack-down on crime:
https://counciloncj.org/crime-trends-in-u-s-cities-mid-year-...
Also, 1% of the population is responsible for most of the crime
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3969807/
So if you end up jailing people, the crime just goes down.
Also, then if that's true, then cancel all murder prison sentences!
1. Longer sentences could have no effect on crime rates.
2. Persecuting people for crimes lowers crime rates.
Honestly, to me it reads as "law enforcement is a good idea, prolonged incarceration is questionable".
Reported effects of CECOT on crime
Reduction in crime rates
Since Bukele declared a state of emergency in March 2022 and began mass arrests, El Salvador's crime rates have plummeted.
Homicide rate decline: The country's homicide rate fell from 103 per 100,000 people in 2015 to just 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024, one of the most drastic reductions in recent history.
Increased public safety: Many Salvadorans, long subjected to extortion and violence by powerful gangs, report feeling much safer on the streets.
With all due respect, I did not have any argument.
I was reading your conversation, I had difficulty seeing a contradiction, so I asked a question.
You've introduced one more statement instead, "mass arrests with long-term sentences have drastically reduced crime rate in El Salvador". I see your point but this doesn't really help me with my original question. How do we know that it's the sentence terms is a significant factor (out of the combination), and not the mass arrests or something else? We don't have a control group, do we?