Clearing our crowded jails in this pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be succeeding in easing a problem that has long plagued our prison system in the Philippines – overcrowding in thousands of jails to such an extent that prisoners have no space in which to stretch out to sleep at night.

Photos of half-naked prisoners lying right on the steps of the prison stairs came out in foreign publications last April. It was in the early part of the surging pandemic and prison conditions were clearly in violation of social distancing protocols of the World Health Organization, adopted by the Philippine government.

The Philippines has nearly a thousand national, city, district, provincial, and municipal jails and many of them don’t meet the minimum standards set by the United Nations for food and living conditions. More than three-quarters of detainees are involved in cases that are still in the pre-trial stage, according to the World Prison Population List of the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at the University of London.

Many of our own officials have long realized the problem. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra had ordered the Bureau of Corrections and the Board of Pardons to expedite the release of sick and elderly prisoners. In Congress, the House Committee on Justice proposed the temporary release of elderly prisoners, those with health conditions, and firsttime offenders.

The Supreme Court has now issued guidelines aimed at decongesting prisons during the coronavirus pandemic through the release of those who have served the minimum period of their jail terms, through hearings conducted via video conferencing. From March 17 to July 3, a total of 43,171 prisoners all over the country were reported released – most of them from jails in Metro Manila (8,909), Southern Luzon (7,443), Central Luzon (6,203), and Central Visayas (4,528).

The high court has issued guidelines on the release of indigent prisoners through reduced bail. The Department of Justice has approved rules to ease requirements for parole and executive clemency. A group of political prisoners have also filed a petition for their temporary release on humanitarian grounds.

The problem of our overcrowded jails should really be met by the establishment of more such detention facilities and the institution of reforms that will speed up processes in the police and justice systems. That would be the basic and longrange solution to this old problem.

But we are glad that some action is being taken to decongest our nation’s jails so as to meet the socio-distancing protocol that is at the center of government’s efforts to keep COVID-19 cases down, along with the use of face masks and constant washing of hands and liberal use of alcohol to kill the virus.