President Laura Fernandez inaugurated the $35m mega-prison built to house up to 5,100 inmates near San Jose. Costa Rica has locked up the first 123 inmates in a new mega-prison, built with the help of the Salvadoran government in the outskirts of capital San José, the. SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — Costa Rica, considered for decades a peaceful enclave in turbulent Central America, has now made fighting drug trafficking one of its.