Jail good for 77 inmates now holds 1,042

CEBU, Philippines – In an interview, Chief Inspector Gil Inopia, the jail's warden, said there are 1,042 inmates at the city jail at present.

He said the 1992-built jail was only supposed to have a capacity of 77 inmates based on United Nations standards.

Inopia said even if the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology would want to expand the jail facility, they could not do anything about it because they could not find a lot in which to  construct a new jail.

Most inmates at the city jail are facing crimes of violation against illegal drugs, murder and robberies.

Some inmates continue to languish in jail even if the aggrieved parties are no longer interested to pursue the cases against them, Inopia stressed.

Because of this, he said the only thing they can do for now is to coordinate with the office of the public attorney to hasten their release.

Inopia also said they are about to implement within the month the "good conduct time allowance" granted by the law to the city wardens.

He explained that before, it was only the director of the National Bilibid Prison who could grant GCTA but now, city jail wardens can already implement the same to their own inmates.

Inopia said the provision in the computation procedure on the reduction scheme of good conduct or the behavior has the following features: inmates who are committed in their first two years of imprisonment will have 20 days off for each month; for third and fifth years, 23 days off; and eleventh and successive years, 30 days off.

He said the board that he tasked to help in implementation will be having an orientation on the program and he is hopeful that within the month they can already start implementing it so the city jail will be decongested.