CORRUPTION IN OUR PRISONS

SORDID conditions in the national prisons and local jails are a chronic
problem no president has manfully addressed and has sought to reform.

Through the years administration after administration, life in the
penitentiaries has deteriorated dangerously, making prisoners more
dangerous than when they started serving their sentences, turning prisons
into incubators for more violent crimes.

Oppressive congestion has bred diseases, unrest and violence. Dirty tap
water and substandard food contribute to sickness, tension and riots.

Rivalries, the instinct for preservation and the fight for privilege have
spawned prison gangs. Gang rivalry has prodded the production of knives,
clubs and crude handguns.

Corruption among officials and guards is also prevalent. Favors can be
enjoyed for a price. Privilege is bestowed on affluent prisoners. Sex,
special food, space and personal luxuries can be had with a wink. Special
leaves, according to rumors, are easy to get.

On the other hand, there is wanton violation of human rights. Medical care
is wanting. Toilets and showers are notoriously dirty. Prisoners sleep on
the floor when they could find space.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines on Thursday gave the
nation a peek into conditions in the city and municipal jails maintained by
the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

The CBCP presented a study by Raymund Narag, a penology consultant to the
Supreme Court and a cum laude graduate in public administration from the
University of the Philippines.

Narag is an expert on prison life. He was detained for seven years at the
Quezon City jail before being acquitted in 2002 for taking part in the
killing of a fellow student.

Many of the report's findings were harrowing. The number of prisoners in
local jails, for example, is increasing by 12 percent each year, but the
bureau's budget has not risen in the past years. Meal allowance for each
prisoner-covering breakfast, lunch and dinner-is a miserable P30 a day.

The average stay of prisoners is 3.2 years before their cases are finally
decided.

Inmates have a living space of 0.28 square meters per person, way below the
3-square meters per inmate set by the UN Minimum Standard for the Treatment
of Prisoners.

Inmates at the Quezon City jail die at an alarming rate of two to five a month.

Narag has proposed three solutions to deal with deprivation in the city and
municipal jails:

Pass a pretrial release program bill to give a suspect a chance to stay out
of jail under official supervision while his case is being heard;

Enact the comprehensive justice system bill to segregate minors from adult
offenders; and

Amend Republic Act 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, which,
according to Narag, lowered the threshold for a nonbailable drug offense
and automatically classified all accused persons as pushers.

We would add the immediate expansion and rehabilitation of local jails and
national prisons, and the provision of better food, water, medicines,
sleeping quarters and toilets.

We urge President Arroyo to create immediately a presidential commission to
study current penal policy, conditions in the country's jails and prisons,
and recommend measures to reform the atrocities in the penitentiaries.

Prisoners have human rights under national and international laws. Article
3 of the Constitution asserts they deserve to live in civilized conditions.
Prisoners are not social rejects but a group that can be transformed into a
productive resource. There is life after jail for prisoners, except that
the government has not recognized their humanity and their potential.

The CBCP report confirms what many penal observers have known all along
while adding to public knowledge about life in domestic jails. The details,
as described by someone who has served time, are grisly and gripping.
Corruption and neglect in our jails demand government action.

"The conditions in our jails are already at a boiling point," Narag warns.
"It will just explode anytime."