Injustice and Squalor of the Penal System
The Universe
(September 22, 2002)
They are only young kids, Manuel and Felix 12 and 13 year-old and hungry. They are always hungry and dressed in unwashed t-shirts and shorts. Water is a precious and rare commodity. They live and sleep on the cold concrete floor of the cramped cell that has dark dirty walls and a ceiling crawling with spiders and cockroaches. The fetid air is abuzz with the whine of mosquitoes that irritate and sting without mercy. Anytime I go to visit I come away with my arms bitten blue and running a risk of malaria so infested is the area surrounding the prison. A dim yellow bulb gives a faint sickly glow to the grim dungeon-like darkness that shrouds their young hopeless lives.
Their faces and eyes light up with hope and longing to see what is in the plastic bag of goodies we brought. They are ravenous so food and drink is first. The small boys, like thousands of others are jailed because they are homeless, were conceived recklessly, born without being asked and left to fend for themselves like wild birds with nowhere to go, nothing to live for. Survival is all that counts for them. They were abandoned and then convicted of vagrancy. But not before almost all their human and legal rights were shameless violated.
While they devour the food we
talk with the nearby adult prisoners.
Some have TB or hepatitis or AIDS. I fear for the children. I feel depressed
and then angry at the senseless man-made misery so easily rectified but
about which so few really care.
In my own life I am almost ashamed to live as I do, secure, well fed and with all the necessities of a decent life. I am more ashamed when I find myself complaining and thinking I am deprived. In fact we live in opulent luxury in comparison to the hardships endured by the children in prison or on the streets. Now I understand why Jesus Christ told us to forget ourselves and help others. He was so angry when he saw how the poor were despised and treated as worthless outcasts while their political and religious leaders were denounced as pious frauds and likened to whitened sepulchers. We can never enter the kingdom of heaven, he said, unless we become as innocent as one of these children. He identified with them. He appealed to us to see him in the poor, in prison, hungry and deprived.
Some jails are better than others. Some have fluorescent lights, a TV perhaps, a little more space so only a few need stand while the others sleep. Medics come from time to time to flush out the cells and administer drugs, especially when an epidemic breaks out and the press reports it. Sometimes the prisoners get out for a blessed gulp of fresh air and a quick view of the sky and a ray of sunshine.
In some prisons the basic needs of human life and dignity are absent. Beside a chronic lack of justice there are no plates and spoons so the kids eat from a newspaper with their hands. There is no water in the cell either to wash or cool off from the oppressively humid heat. The toilet is frequently a stinking hole in the corner, or a filthy toilet bowel or bucket with no running water.
Life for a child in a Philippine prison is like a death sentence. There are twelve minors on death row and a thousand adults. But thank God the Catholic Church and civil society have successfully campaigned against the death penalty. Now a new law to abolish it is gaining ground in the congress and Senate.
Filipino's are by a large a people of gentle compassion, kindness and a love of justice. I see it everyday in my co-workers who risk much for human rights. But a history of political corruption and dictatorship has left a legacy of unjust laws, empty coffers and a sea of pitiless political hearts. Our mission is to change as much of that as possible.
