THE Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Davao Region sees the need to employ more personnel as the jails, like the Davao City Jail in Maa, are congested with inmates.
Jail Senior Inspector Roberto Gotico, head of the BJMP-Davao Personnel Records and Management Division and the Human Resources Division, told SunStar Davao that lack of personnel remained to be one of their biggest challenges.
Gotico said the bureau only has 153 personnel in Davao City, seven of them are jail commissioned officers (JCOs) while 146 are jail non-commissioned officers (JNCOs).
Of the 153 jail personnel, 80 of them are designated at the Davao City Jail in Maa male ward, 42 at the Davao City Jail Annex, and 31 at the Davao City Female Jail.
"If we are going to compare the number of our personnel to the number of inmates here in Davao City, talagang mas marami ang inmates. Could you imagine the one is to 51 ratio, one jail guard looking after the 51 inmates," Gotico said.
The bureau has overall 394 jail personnel in Davao Region - 84 are designated in Davao del Norte province, 112 in Davao del Sur province, 15 in Davao Oriental province and 30 in Compostela Valley province.
BJMP-Davao recorded 6,695 inmates - 482 are in Montevista District Jail in Compostela Valley, 929 in Davao del Norte, 5,233 in Davao del Sur, including 4,440 inmates in Davao City, and 75 in Davao Oriental.
He said about 80 percent of the inmates in these facilities are facing drug-related cases including possession and sale of banned narcotics. He added that inmates surged since the government's drug campaign started.
Gotico said they look forward to hire more personnel this year. He added that they will wait on Department of Budget and Management's decision on the matter.