Guards abused youths in center, board says

Youth offenders did indeed suffer physical abuse at the hands of jail guards in Operation Second Chance before last March 12’s uprising by young detainees.

This was confirmed by Regional Trial Court Judge Olegario Sarmiento, chairman of the facility’s management board, which met yesterday.

Councilor Margot Osmeña, a board member, said three youths told the judge that three of the eight jail guards who were sacked following the March 12 violence had physically abused them.

One of the guards supposedly beat up the youth detainees, provoking them to stab one guard and detain another inside a toilet.

The guard was eventually released following a three-hour negotiation with the female warden.

“We will leave the investigation of the incident to officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology(BJMP),” Sarmiento said.

The board held a meeting in Sarmiento’s office in RTC Branch 24.

He said the board decided to ask the Department of Education and other agencies to conduct a training session with jail staff on how to handle children.

The board also wants minor offenders who are drug dependent to undergo rehabilitation.

The board agreed to remove jail guards from the overcrowded facility, which was built for 100 persons but holds 171 teenagers.

Osmeña said the Cebu city government should take over managinement of the facility from the BJMP.

“This was a plan we already discussed since last year but this cannot be done overnight. BJMP will have to train center personnel to take over because eventually they will be moving out,” she said.

Until this can be done, adjustments will be made to avoid a repeat of the violence.

Osmeña it would cost P12.5 million a year for the city government to run Operation Second Chance of which P4.8 million will pay for personnel services. Blue guards may be hired to secure the facility.

Osmeña said the facility should be renovated to separate residents 18 years old and above from the minors and new residents.

Most of the 18-year-olds and above either have suspended sentences or are still awaiting trial of their cases.

When they turn 21 they are transferred to the Cebu City Jail.

The right side of the facility which is assigned to its five to six female residents may be used to hold those aged 18-years-old and up.

This part of the center is now used as kitchen and training area.

Osmena said a P600,000 outlay for renovation of thebuilding is already in the annual budget of Cebu City. The project just needs to be bidded out.

A net also has to be set up to cover the center to prevent contraband items like cigarettes from being tossed into the compound from outside.

Improving the perimeter fence will cost P400,000, which will need a separate outaly.

Mayor Michael Rama said he sees no problem in having the city run the youth detainee center but said he needs to know if the BJMP would continue to share the budget for the residents’ meals .

About 90 of the 171 offenders in the facility are from neighboring towns and cities.

Operation Second Chance facility was completed in 2001 and occupied in 2002, two years before the passage of the Juvenile Justice law.

It was originally designed as a detention facility for youth offenders but was later made a rehabilitation center and youth home with the passage of the law.

It’s operations manual s crafted in 2006 said jail guards would secure the facility while social workers handle case studies of residents.

City Hall hired house parents to attend to the detainees’s food and housekeeping needs among others.

The manual was revised in 2010 that required the removal of jail guards from the facility which won’t be run by the city government.

Osmeña said the BJMP would still sit n the management board to share inputs on running the center.

With eight jail guards pulled out pending investigation, Osmeña said the mnagement board wants to be updated about the BJMP probe.

Judge Sarmiento plans to write judges and local government units (LGUs) where the 90 residents are from to ask for logistical support for the youths when they attend court hearings of their cases.