Legal counseling and healing behind bars
(The Manila times, November 15, 2007)
Legal counseling and
healing behind bars
BY PERSIDA V. RUEDA-ACOSTA
CHIEF PUBLIC ATTORNEY,
PUBLIC ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
(The following is a condensed version of a speech at the International Corrections and Prisons Association 9th Annual General Meeting and Conference, Oct. 21, 2007, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand).
TO say that Metro Manila penitentiaries are filled to the rafters is not an overstatement. In these jam-packed jails, shanties are built inside prison cells to give the inmates additional space. The truth about over crowding in Metro Manila detention centers stares glaringly in the eyes of stakeholders in correctional reforms.
During my visits, through the free Legal and Medical Jail Visitation and Decongestion Program of the Public Attorney’s Office, my heart sank as I repeatedly witnessed the intolerable condition of our inmates.
Congestion puts inmates in a degrading and inhumane situation. It deprives them of their basic needs, such as adequate ventilation and decent sleeping quarters. Congestion has clearly compromised and jeopardized their health. Inmates take turns sleeping on the same vacant space. Many fall into slumber while squatting on the floor or standing against the wall. These sleep-deprived inmates are vulnerable to illnesses. Congestion makes their health frail.
Extreme congestion in Metro Manila penitentiaries accounts for 36 percent of jail overcrowding in the Philippines. These jails take in 400 times more prisoners than the official prison capacity. The nationwide percentage of congestion is peaked at 212.28 percent. Deplorable prison life has challenged the PAO to launch a legal, medical and decongestion program.
Reaching out
The PAO is the principal government legal aid office tasked to give free legal assistance to indigent persons in criminal, civil, labor, administrative and quasijudicial cases. Our 261 district offices, each headed by a district public attorney, see to it that the jails in their jurisdiction are visited at least once a month to give legal counsel and to determine who have served the minimum or maximum imposable penalty for the offense charged.
As the PAO’s chief public attorney, I have taken it upon myself to visit inmates and detained PAO clients, especially those whose cases I handle personally. I also look after their medical, dental and optical problems.
The PAO started this project on April l2 this year and had its 10th and latest leg on Oct. 17. The visits yielded excellent results. Already, 957 inmates were released from detention. More might even be freed from the 2,925 inmates who currently enjoy free legal advice by PAO lawyers. About 3,440 ailing inmates were given free medical and dental assistance and 1,667 inmates received reading glasses without charge.
Visiting Jails
The 10 jails we visited were in Quezon City, Manila, Marikina,
Caloocan, Las Pinas, Paranaque, Makati, the Correctional Institution for
Women in Mandaluyong, the Female Dorm at Camp Caringal in Quezon City,
and the Maximum Security Compound at the New Bilibid Prison in
Muntinlupa.
Except for the Makati jail, extreme congestion was apparent in those prisons. The Quezon City jail was congested by 295 percent, Correctional Institute for Women by 95 percent, Manila City jail by 195 percent, Marikina by 5 percent, Caloocan by 94 percent, Las Piñas by 259 percent, Camp Caringal Female Dorm by 197 percent, New Bilibid Prisons (maximum security) by 30 percent and the Paranaque City jail by 132 percent.
Overcrowding has taken its toll on the health of inmates. Manu suffered from scabies, hypertension and other diseases.
Terrible congestion
In her budget message for fiscal year 2008, President Gloria Arroyo
said that P36.9 million would go to the construction of new jail
facilities. In a recent dialogue with government officials, she urged
them to put up decent detention centers for the inmates.
I wrote Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila, Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., of Quezon City and Mayor Recom Echiverri of Caloocan City recommending the construction of bigger and more humane jails which would offer livelihood programs to rehabilitate the inmates.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, a line bureau under the Department of interior and Local Government, tasked to provide humane safekeeping and development of inmates in all district, city and municipal jails, is pushing a bill for the establishment of an integrated jail facility. This would be built on a 94-hectare lot that is only a 15-minute ride to Congress. The BJMP wants this facility to be conducive for inmates’ rehabilitation and other livelihood programs. The plan includes a hospital, churches, court rooms, and housing project for BJMP personnel to serve as a buffer zone and to tighten security. There will surely be ample space for sports activities.
Executive clemency
While the building of bigger and better jails for detainees is
laudable, freeing inmates who deserve executive clemency is a hundred
times more commendable.
A report from the Philippine Board of Pardons and Parole reveals that from January 2006 to early September 2007, a total of 4,174 parole and executive clemency were granted. Last July, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita reported that nine seriously ill inmates convicted of drug-related cases were pardoned after considering their age, health and years served. Secretary Ermita said that prisoners convicted of drug-related offenses were generally not considered for conditional par don and commutation of sentence. “But in the interest of justice, the President has on several occasions granted executive clemency to prisoners convicted for drug-related offenses, he said.
To these figures, I fervently hope that the 14 living military personnel convicted in the (Senator Benigo) Aquino-Galman double murder case would be added. They were recommended by PAO for executive clemency. Among them were aging (70-year-old) and ailing (afflicted with uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension, respiratory diseases, stroke, and chronic kidney ailment) inmates.
Good conduct
The granting of executive clemency, release on bail, recognizance,
and good conduct time allowance (GCTA), as well as transferring children
in conflict with the law (CICL) to juvenile detention centers could free
some precious space in overcrowded jails.
During the 13th Congress, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel and Rep. Raul Gonzalez, Jr. authored bills to grant mandatory good conduct time allowance (GCTA) to in mates who earned credits by taking up values development programs, literacy and skills training. Prisoners who teach said courses to their fellow inmates were also included in the grant. Sadly, none of the bills were enacted into law.
I am for their refilling in the 14th Congress. The current BJMP head, Director Armando Llamasares, has a similar goal. He is seeking the amendment of Art. 99 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines to allow the BJMP head to grant GCTA. In conjunction with a DOJ legal opinion, the chief of BJMP is not authorized to grant GCTA, Nonetheless, there are inmates who remain in the BJMP’s jurisdiction. They are the ones who are serving a term of imprisonment from one day to three years.
While Congress is silent on the inclusion of good conduct time allowance in the legislative agenda of the 14th Congress, President Arroyo seeks the immediate release of imprisoned children in conflict with the law. The livelihood training and free education in prison envisioned by Senator Pimentel and Representative Gonzalez as part of their bills on GCTA are being realized at the National Training School for Boys in Tanay, Rizal. In May this year, President Arroyo ordered the Department of Social Welfare and Development to take in CICL as students in that school so they could continue their education and engage in livelihood while serving their sentence.
Young offenders
In July, President Arroyo signed Executive Order 633 ordering the
immediate release of children in conflict with the law who are 15 years
old and below at the time of the commission of the crime but remain
imprisoned at the facilities of the BJMP and the BuCor. They were
detained together with adult offenders, in violation of R.A. 9344, the
Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which calls for the separation
of CICL from adult prisoners.
There’s a dearth of youth detention centers in our country. Thus it was good news that last May, an 800-capacity building originally built for drug suspects was converted into a halfway home of children in conflict with the law. The four-story facility is named (CRADLE, for the Center for Restorative Activities Development and Learning Experiences. It offers non-formal education and other programs for the continuous physical, intellectual, spiritual and social development of minors.
