Never harm them, never shout at them. Don’t show your firearms and wear your special uniforms inside the facility.
Those were the reminders given to the new jail guards at the Operation Second Chance youth facility in barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.
The new guards replaced those who were manhandled by underage inmates last Monday evening.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Central Visayas (BJMP-7) ordered the relief and investigation of the jail guards following the incident.
The replacement came as two top members of the Operation Second Chance board called for an investigation into the case and the appointment of blue guards to secure the youth detention center.
Supt. Efren Nemeño, BMJP-7 deputy regional director for administration and operations, said the guards were transferred to jail facilities in the cities of Cebu Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
Replacing them were two jail guards from the Cebu City Jail male dorm, another two guards from the Cebu City female dorm, two jail guards from the Mandaue City Jail and another two from the Lapu-Lapu City Jail.
“So there won’t be any tension in the facility,” Nemeño said.
Jail rules
He said he briefed the new set of jail guards who reported yesterday morning on the rules on how to handle the young offenders.
Nemeño said he warned the guards not to inflict verbal and physical abuse on the underage inmates.
He said it is the house parents and not them who should deal with the young inmates.
But Councilor Margot Osmeña and Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Olegario Sarmiento, Operation Second Chance board members, said security personnel trained to handle minors should monitor the underage inmates and not guards.
“I already proposed that trained security personnel should replace the Bureau of Jail Management (BJMP) guards in the Operation Second Chance facility. I don’t know why BJMP personnel are still there,” Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento’s proposal echoed a similar point earlier raised by Councilor Osmeña, who said the “Operation Second Chance” handbook requires jail guards to only secure the facility and not deal with the underage inmates.
The councilor said it is the house parents who should handle the youth detainees and implement rehabilitation programs in coordination with the city government’s social workers. Osmeña said the facility’s warden Elsie Eireen Alcomendras admitted to her that two of her jail guards were not trained to handle minor offenders.
She said she was unsatisfied with Alcomendras’ updated report on last Monday’s violence.
The councilor said a dialogue is needed to better understand and assess the demands of the underage inmates.
“I used to do that in the beginning but it’s a different situation now,” said Osmeña.
Osmeña said she learned that the jail guards would beat up the inmates.
She said Alcomendras told her in a phone conversation that she didn’t see any jail guard beat the inmates.
About 50 of the facility’s 174 occupants are already over 18 years old, Osmeña said, which meant they should be transferred.
“The Operation Second Chance center was built for minors,” she said.
Criminal charges
The councilor also said blue guards should secure the facility instead of BJMP jail guards.
Osmeña asked for a separate report from the center’s house parents.
Judge Sarmiento, who chairs the Operation Second Chance board, said he wants an inquiry on the incident and will visit the center this Saturday.
If the accusations of maltreatment are proven true, Sarmiento said the jail guards may face criminal charges for physical injuries and maltreatment.
He said they can also be dismissed from service on administrative charges.
Osmeña said Alcomendras report only detailed what happened last Monday.
In it, the warden said the jail guards were conducting a routine head count when the underage inmates turned on them at past 11 p.m.
The inmates dragged and placed JO1 Rix Becalas in a toilet while jail guards Everly Kadusale and Frederick Sicmat managed to get out of the area.
Kadusale reportedly sustained bruises, fractures and lacerations.
A jail guard team from the nearby Cebu City Jail were called to secure the facility while Nemeño and other officials helped in the dialogue with the underage inmates.
Becalas was released nearly three hours later. All of the jail facility’s 174 occupants were accounted for, Alcomendras said. With Correspondent Chito Aragon