FRIENDS OF DRUG SUSPECTS BANNED AT PROVINCIAL JAIL

FPM

LINGAYEN -- Suspected carriers of illegal drugs at the Pangasinan
Provincial Jail (PPJ) have been banned from visiting detained drug
personalities.

Chief Insp. Jerick Royales, acting jail warden, made the move to prevent
the recurrence of the drug trade inside the PPJ.

"Only their immediate relatives are allowed to visit them," he said.

He has also put into solitary confinement inmates involved in creating
trouble inside the jail to show that the management is serious in
instituting reforms at the jail.

Royales said he separated members of the Abelardo Punzal group and placed
them in various detention cells to prevent them from coming up with new
plan on how they could continue their illegal drug activity.

The acting jail warden said the monitoring and surveillance of persons
listed at the blue book confiscated at the cell of Punzal proved effective
because there is no more illegal activity monitored in the jail for the
past one month.

This, aside from monitoring conducted by the intelligence and investigation
division and the special operations group of the Pangasinan Provincial
Police Office.

Moreover, Royales also made an evaluation of the physical condition of the
PPJ and had discovered weak portions of the jail building.

"The capacity is only 120 but we have 246 inmates. What we are doing is to
look for folding beds that they could use at night and could fold at
daytime," he said.

Expressing fear some inmates might escape, Royales pointed out the need to
rehabilitate the perimeter fence as well as the wooden ceilings at the
detention cells.

He said the inmates could make a hole at the ceiling where they could crawl
out of the building's overhang that does not have a cover.

"Once down on the ground, they could easily pass through the fence that is
already very low," he said as he disclosed that he had already requested
for re-fencing but it has not yet been acted upon.

On the problem of potable water for the detainees, he proposed the
installation of a water pump. "Many people are now into purified (mineral)
water but we cannot afford it," the acting jail warden said.