Labella urges Congress to check all jails

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council is expected to pass a resolution on Wednesday urging Congress to evaluate the jails all over the country.

Councilor Edgardo Labella said jails should be designed to fulfill the thrust of our penal system “to be corrective and not afflictive, to be reformatory not punitive.”

“I believe that even criminals have an inherent goodness in them. They should therefore be given a second chance if they reform and live a new life as law abiding citizens,” he said.

Labella said the detention facilities should have livelihood trainings for the inmates to have a good chance to earn a living and become useful citizens when they get out.

“We should also consider the fact that because of some defects in our judicial system, not all of those who are in jail are really guilty, especially the poor who cannot avail the services of a good counsel,” Labella added.

While Labella supports the pending bill sponsored by Senator Chiz Escudero that seeks to address issues on “dilapidated facilities, congested prisons and archaic operational system” and structure at the Bureau of Corrections, he said a similar move should also be conducted in jails manned by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

The north district councilor said he observed that some of the BJMP-manned jails are substandard and contrary to penology criteria of being “remedial and curative.”

 Labella said the main purpose of imposing a penalty is reform and thus the “basis of criminal liability must consider that man is inherently good but the offender is socially sick.”

 “Such theory supports that a criminal is a product of the environment, and as his thoughts and actions are strongly influenced by his upbringing, social environment and association, he or she must be punished by penalties that are corrective or curative, to reform him,” he said.

 As of yesterday, the Cebu City jail in barangay Kalunasan houses 2,040 inmates, according to jail warden Maria Victoria Jimenez. It only has 139 jail guards, or one jail guard per 14 detainees.

Labella said the correct jail guard-prisoner ratio is one jail guard for every six prisoners.

He supports Escudero’s bill because it will provide “a degree of protection for inmates” that will include decent provisions of quarters, food, water and clothing in compliance with established United Nations standards.

 Section 19 (2) of Article III of the 1987 Constitution provides that the “employment of physical, psychological, or degrading punishment against any prisoner or detainee or the use of substandard or inadequate penal facilities under subhuman conditions shall be dealt with by law.”

“The City of Cebu is consistent with its pro-life stance in matters relating to the value of human life and dignity to promote measures that uphold full respect for human rights,” Labella added. - THE FREEMAN