Cabaero: Jail congestion
OFFICIALS of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) have decided they couldn’t take any more detainees.
The provincial jail stopped accepting new detainees effective last August 1 to control the congestion where 3,993 detainees are inside the facility meant for 1,500.
The congestion of jails around the country has worsened because of government’s relentless crackdown on illegal drugs and crime, a special report on www.sunstar.com.ph last month said. Having inmates cramped into small spaces with no place for lying down or for privacy could be taken as a sign of the crackdown’s success. Thousands of people into the illegal drug trade have been jailed, making our streets safer, government sectors said. But jail congestion alone cannot be taken as a measurement of success. Rehabilitation of prisoners and the resolution of cases should be part of the metrics.
Provincial jail warden Reynaldo Valmoria said in a SunStar Cebu report that the facility started refusing to accept more detainees after securing the consent of all judges of the Regional Trial Courts and asking prosecutors in the province to no longer refer charged suspects to the CPDRC.
Valmoria said that, aside from not receiving new inmates, the prison facility could work towards granting time allowances for good conduct, and identifying those caught in the drug war who could be rehabilitated or treated in centers.
It is not known when the CPDRC would open again to new detainees but it will do so only when the number of inmates is brought down to 2,000, Valmoria said. Until such time, those arrested may have to remain in the town jail centers or police stations where detention conditions are not better and security not as tight as in bigger prisons.
The SunStar online special report said detention facilities of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) have a congestion rate of 562.41 percent. Congestion eased from the 612 percent reported in 2017, but was worse compared to the 511 percent in 2016. This meant a prison area for one currently holding five to six people.
The Cebu City Jail ranked second in terms of most populous BJMP facilities with a congestion rate of 868 percent. It’s hard to imagine how eight people could live in a space meant for one, but it’s happening here.
The severe congestion leads to health problems of detainees and abuse by fellow prisoners. We’ve read of prisoners having skin disorders and respiratory problems and of some dying because they were not brought immediately to hospitals.
Not to forget that letting detainees stay in police stations in the towns could mean a suspect may be denied justice when he is unable to appear for investigation or case hearing and cannot confront his or her accuser.
This is the reason jail congestion should be resolved urgently because it is not all about space.