Prison reforms
Members of the House of Representatives have repeatedly stressed that the probe into the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison is in aid of legislation. The legislative reforms must include improvements in the NBP and other prison facilities. Witnesses have unanimously painted a picture of the nation’s main prison now filled to overflowing, with funding and capacity failing to keep up with the needs of an ever- growing inmate population.
Prison resources have been so limited that inmates, with the approval of apparently corrupted guards and corrections officials, have taken it upon themselves to finance the construction or installation of facilities that will make their incarceration comfortable.
As previous raids and witnesses’ testimonies have shown, inmates went overboard with these creature comforts, turning the NBP into what one witness described as a virtual Las Vegas when Leila de Lima was the secretary of justice. What started out as minor humane privileges, such as huts or “kubol” for privacy during conjugal visits, went too far, with even Jacuzzis, saunas and music recording studios installed in air-conditioned rooms where inmates allegedly received sex workers and ran gambling and drug trafficking operations.
Witnesses’ testimonies painted a prison where inmates are not held behind bars, where prisoners rather than guards and corrections officials are the ones in charge. Jaybee Sebastian said yesterday he used part of the enormous earnings from drug trafficking to construct his spacious, air- conditioned room and other installations, and to augment the meager budget for prison meals. If the government wanted to curb the drug trade in the NBP, Sebastian said, the facilities must be improved so that inmates would not feel the need to fend for themselves.
The state must provide adequate facilities that can contain all wards, so that prisoners’ movements can be strictly regimented. They must leave their prison cells only at certain hours; all their visitors must be thoroughly screened; cell phone use must be banned, with inmates allowed to use only common phones in areas monitored by CCTV.
All ill-gotten assets must also be seized, including bank deposits, real property, vehicles and other items being used by the families of the NBP drug traffickers and their coddlers. Convicts and their relatives alike should clearly understand that crime does not pay, whether in or outside prison.