Jail electric overload cause: Inmates’ devices

CEBU CITY—When the provincial jail in this city experienced power interruptions, jail officials did not need to look far for the cause.

It started coming from inmates’ cells last week—cell phones with chargers and improvised water heaters, among other things that the prisoners surrendered.

Romeo Manansala, warden of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, said inmates used heaters made out of electrical wire, with a plug on one end and a spoon on the other end.

Inmates use the improvised device to heat water for coffee.

But little did they know that the use of the device, plus the charging of cell phones that their relatives smuggle in, would cause power interruptions.

Manansala said the jail suffered from electrical overload. He asked the inmates to surrender their heaters and cell phones.

“I told them that if they did not stop using the heating device, they might suffer from power outage for a long time,” said Manansala. “There will be no lights, no water, nothing,” he said.

Manansala said jail authorities would instead provide real heaters to inmates.

He said Marco Toral, jail consultant, would buy 10 heaters using his own money. Jail officials and inmates would also discuss how to schedule the use of heaters by inmates.