Biometrics keep mistresses out of QC jail

It may be overcrowded and look decrepit but the Quezon City Jail is using modern technology, particularly biometrics, to make sure that only “immediate family members” can visit the inmates inside.

Supt. Randel Latoza, the jail warden, said they use biometrics—getting the fingerprints of visitors—to screen out mistresses or even sex workers from getting inside the prison which houses around 2,800 inmates.

“We’ve devised a system to determine who can visit the inmates because before, we weren’t sure if the visitor is the inmate’s daughter, wife or even mistress,” Latoza told reporters.

“The law says only immediate family members can visit. Before, the wife and mistress would unknowingly visit at the same time and so we had trouble. Now, we know who is the mistress and who is the wife,” he added.

According to him, there were previous cases where sex workers were allowed entry and even stayed the night.

“Before, some of them would hide inside and stay overnight. Now, no one is left behind [after visiting hours]. No prostitute gets into the Quezon City Jail,” he said.

Latoza also cited the E-Dalaw” system which allows inmates to talk to lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) via Skype.

“We use this technology because the PAO lawyers often times cannot visit the inmates because of [heavy] traffic or they don’t have gasoline (for their cars),” he said.

“What we did is we use Skype so the PAO lawyer, even if he’s in his office, would be able to talk to the inmate so that [the latter] would have access to his legal counsel,” he added.