Wednesday, October 25, 2006 Plan on hiring city jail inmates needs ok of BJMP
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s plan to hire some city jail inmates is still awaiting clearance from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) Jail Warden Efren Nemeño said he already referred the matter to BJMP 7 but he was told to seek clearance from their central office in Manila.
He said the mayor’s plan is doable and has been done by the Mandaue City Government before.
Nemeño is expecting to get feedback from BJMP’s legal department within the week.
Policy
“There is no initial information whether they are favorable to it or not. There is no clear-cut policy on having the inmates work, that’s why we have to seek clearance from Manila so we will not have problems later on if the practice is questioned,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Last July, Osmeña announced his plan to hire “low-risk” inmates of BBRC to work at the South Road Properties (SRP) as a way of temporarily solving the congestion problems at the city jail.
It will also provide livelihood to some of the inmates who will be paid P100 a day for their labor, he had said.
The inmates will be asked to help make sandbags that will be used as base for the interior roads, the artificial white-sand beach and boardwalk within the 240-hectare SRP.
In a phone interview yesterday, Vice Mayor Michael Rama said he has no objections to the mayor’s plan, which he said is a good idea.
“Gwapo na nga plano but we have to ensure that security concerns are addressed because when they are out, it would mean a chance for them to escape. That’s good, it will give the inmates relief from the congestion inside the jail,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
BBRC was built for a capacity of 200 inmates only but it now holds some 2,500 prisoners.
Labor
Nemeño said the mayor’s plan has been practiced in some cities and provinces but the projects were limited to clean-and-green programs of the local government units and other similar projects.
“Mandaue City has done it before. It was a similar project but the inmates were not paid,” he added.
With plans of improvement at the SRP becoming more extensive, the need to hire inmates to work at the site has become more apparent.
Mayor Osmeña and some councilors inspected the SRP yesterday just as the Muslims were celebrating the culmination of the Ramadan at the site.
Osmeña said that with his plans, it will be a continuous process to develop the SRP year after year.
Such plans include the 1.4-kilometer, man-made white sand beach and the multi-level boardwalk.
With this, millions of sandbags will be needed every six months.
However, it may not be that easy to hire the inmates from the BBRC, as they will need a court order for that.
Court
Councilor Edgardo Labella, a lawyer, said that the City will have to file the necessary motions first.
“It’s (the plan) okay but we have to ask for permission from the courts because prisoners are custodia legis,” Labella said.
This means that the inmate is subjected to the official custody of a judicial executive officer in pursuance of his execution of a legal writ.
The prisoners will have to undergo evaluation as well.
Labella explained that only those with lesser risk of flight would have to be hired.
Inmates considered as recidivists (habitual offenders) and those facing trial for heinous crimes cannot be hired.
For his part, Councilor Hilario Davide III said the proposal will make the prisoners more productive as labor would mean an exercise for them rather than just sitting around in their cells.
It will be financially rewarding, too.
Aside from the beach and the boardwalk, Osmeña plans more projects at the SRP to entice call center agents.
Call centers
The mayor explained to reporters yesterday his plans to create a transportation system for call centers.
City Hall is holding talks with Convergys.
The entry of call centers will open even more plans such as opening schools for call center agents, and bars and restaurants so the employees can keep up with their social life.
An in-house survey at City Hall revealed that most of their employees who are new graduates refuse to work at a “dead-end” job like the call centers, said Osmeña.
There is nowhere to go after the call center in terms of career development, no social life, plus the threat against security and safety. These, even if a call center offers as much as P16,000 as starting pay while City Hall only gives P10,000 per month. So Osmeña wants to address these problems through the SRP developments.
Asked if this will jeopardize the SRP’s land use plan as an export processing zone, Osmeña explained that call centers are considered as “intangible exports” since services of the personnel are being exported. (LCR/JGA)
