BJMP 7: Jail Congestion, A Perennial Problem

One of the perennial problems faced by the Philippine jail management today is jail congestion, resulting to the untimely death of some of its inmates.

This was revealed on Tuesday by J/SInsp. Elsie Aireen R. Alcomendras, chief community relations of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)7 during the Association of Government Information Officers (AGIO) Forum at the BJMP7 Headquarters.

Alcomendras attributed congestion of the jail facilities in the region to the lack of budget. She said this prevented jail management to construct more infrastructures for the increasing inmates every year.

Alcomendras, who at the same time the Mandaue City Jail Warden of female inmates, said among the 34 jail facilities being managed and supervised by BJMP in Central Visayas, Mandaue city jail tops among them all with a total of 1,036 prisoners occupying a jail capacity of 250 inmates.

She added that the Cebu City jail, which has a capacity of 1,250 inmates, is now being occupied by over 2,300 inmates.

“So there is no reason for anybody to maintain good health and some of them succumbed to hypertensions and heart diseases”, Alcomendras pointed out.

She stated that among the 34 jail facilities in the region, a total of 9,000 prisoners are now languishing in these facilities topped by Cebu which has 7,001 inmates, 777 in Bohol, 1,222 in Negros Oriental and 82 in Siquijor.

Alcomendras added every cell which is only ideal for 2-6 persons, is loaded with 30 to 40 prisoners, with a single toilet and shower.

She also noted that poor condition of the jail facilities in the region has resulted to the death of more than 20 inmates on the third quarter of this year due to hypertensions and heart problems.

She revealed that the P5 allocations for medicines every day to each inmate is not enough to buy the said stuff once an inmate is found to be critically in danger of his illness.

It was noted based on BJMP records on inmate deaths for this year alone in Central Visayas region, there were 2 deaths in January; February 0; March 6; April 6; May 4; June 0; July 8; August 14; September 20; and the number of deaths of this month of October are not yet released.

Some of them died in the hospital, while others have died inside their cell.

Alcomendras also stated that worse among these all, is the lack of budget for any inmate who is hospitalized.

The BJMP official said the P54 million budget for BJMP7 this year is only limited to food allocations which is P50 per inmate every day. This allocation has never changed 5 to 6 years ago, despite of their request to make it P75 if possible, Alcomendras said.

“Maybe the government has tighten its budget in favor of the prisoners to discourage other people from committing crimes because they have no sigh of relief once they are in jail,” Alcomendras said.

The provincial governments of Cebu and Negros Oriental have maintained their respective provincial jails just to ease-up the tasked handled by BJMP.

Alcomendras said they are also thankful to both governors who maintained the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilition Center (CPDRC) and the Negros Oriental provincial detention and rehabilitation center by providing the jail facilities, foods, medical and para legal services to all of its inmates.

She, however noted an increase of prisoners every year which is inevitable due to the growing problems of society and also the perennial problem on illegal drugs.

“But still we have to celebrate the 20th National Correctional Consciousness Week (Nacocow 2014) from October 23-30, to give a chance to every prisoner to join all activities prepared for them within the whole week celebration”, Alcomendras said.

She said even the civil society can witness the said celebration to be conducted in every jail facility in the region where cultural, medical and dental,para-legal and other services will be rendered in favor of all inmates.

She said this will be done by all its stakeholders in the community.