Senator Nancy Binay. INQUIRER.net file photo
In an attempt to decongest overcrowded jails, a senator filed a resolution seeking the automatic release of detainees who have served the prescribed period in custody for their offenses.
“It is the policy of the State for the humane treatment of inmates and prisoners. Yet, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology has recently admitted that its jails are now congested by 583 percent,” Senator Nancy Binay said in a statement on Wednesday.
The senator was reacting to recent reports that some 142,013 prisoners have been crowded into 466 jails nationwide.
Alarmed by the numbers are than last year’s 98,000, Binay filed Senate Bill No. 1263.
Under the bill, all correctional and detention facilities are mandated to release inmates who have served time that is equal to or more than the prescribed maximum imprisonment for their offenses.
Releasing detainees, Binay said, “would not only address the perennial problem of overcrowding in jails but would also allow for a more humane treatment of the detainees.”
Amid the government’s ongoing campaign against drugs, the BJMP has admitted that it is undermanned with only 11,731 officers compared to the recently arrested 86,933 detainees with drug-related crimes.
Binay cited Pulilan Municipal Jail in Bulacan and Biñan City Jail in Laguna, two of the most crowded detention facilities, as examples.
READ: What EJKs? Jails bursting, says BJMP
“Layunin ng panukalang batas na ito na maibsan ang problema ng BJMP at mabigyan ng makataong trato ang mga nakakulong sa mga pasilidad ng nasabing ahensya. Kitang-kita naman natin na sadyang kulang ang pasilidad para sa mga nakakulong sa ngayon,” Binay said.
(The resolution aims to lessen the problem of the BJMP and to give humane treatment to the detainees. We can see that the facilities are not enough for the number of prisoners now.)
“Kung dati pa lamang ay siksikan na sila sa kakarampot na mga seldang nakalaan sa kanila at halos hindi na magkandaugaga ang mga jail guards sa pagbabantay sa kanila, isipin na lang natin kung gaano kalala ang kanilang sitwasyon ngayong mas dumami ang nakakulong,” she added.
(The detainees have always been cramped in a small cell and jail guards have been unable to relax in order to watch over them, just imagine how worse the situation is with the increasing number of prisoners.) Airei Kim Guanga, INQUIRER.net trainee/JE