A PDL will do anything to get his freedom back
London is known as the birthplace of modern imprisonment. Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer was against death penalty, so he created a concept for a prison that would be used to hold prisoners as a form of punishment. By the 19th century, prisons were being built for the sole purpose of housing inmates. The purpose was to deter people from committing crimes. People who were found guilty of various crimes would be sent to these penitentiaries and stripped of their personal freedoms. Inmates were often forced to do hard labor while they were incarcerated and to live in very harsh conditions.
Across much of the world, recent decades have seen rapid and unrelenting growth in use of imprisonment as a response to crime and social disorder. Today, well over 10 million people are imprisoned worldwide: this number includes both those who have been sentenced to imprisonment following conviction of a crime, and those who are being held in custody prior to trial or sentencing, according to a study by Jessica Jacobson, Catherine Heard and Helen Fair.
The authors said jurisdictions that have seen the fastest growth in prisoner numbers include the United States, where the total prison population more than quadrupled from around half a million in 1980 to its peak of over 2.3 million in 2008. Brazil has seen prisoner numbers increase 20-fold from around 30,000 in 1973 to over 600,000 today.
From The Guardian: “Since the start of the summer, reports have emerged that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and the reported head of the Wagner group—an allegation he has repeatedly denied—was recruiting soldiers from within Russia’s extensive penitentiary system in an attempt to compensate for the country’s acute personnel shortages on the battlefield in Ukraine. All prisoners interviewed said they were promised a presidential pardon after six months and a salary of 100,000 rubles (£1,400) a month.”
In the Philippines, there have been instances where irregularities happened at the New Bilibid Prison. For example, prisoners of privilege are allowed to build luxurious cells; and high-profile inmates feigning sickness are allowed to receive off-prison “medical treatment.” Drug lords and crime kingpins operate and direct their illicit activities inside their cells.
The killing of broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa in Las Piñas on October 3 is a case in point. Weeks after the probe into his death started, authorities found out that suspects in his killing had companions inside the supposedly highly secured New Bilibid Prison. At least 13 persons deprived of liberty (PDL) are considered persons of interest in the case, but one of them, Jun Villamor, was killed hours after the gunman’s confession. Worse, suspended Bureau of Corrections Chief Gerald Bantag and Corrections Superintendent Ricardo Zulueta were implicated in the crime.
The National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police on November 7 jointly filed two murder complaints before the Department of Justice against Bantag, Zulueta and several persons deprived of liberty in connection with the death of Mabasa and alleged middleman Villamor. In a joint press briefing, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. called on Bantag and Zulueta to surrender even as the DOJ assured that they would be given due process.
There’s a concept in modern penology that says prisons are there to rehabilitate offenders and prevent future crime. Experts said giving persons deprived of liberty a second chance and reducing barriers to reintegration is not only good for ex-prisoners, it is also good for society. But we can’t do this if those in charge of our penal institutions continue to abuse their authority and use prisoners in illegal activities. It’s about time for authorities to seriously look how they can promote and implement prison reforms.