EDITORIAL - Decongesting prisons

After hosting the 2nd ASEAN Regional Correctional Conference last week in Palawan, the Bureau of Corrections is reportedly considering the expansion of the “home imprisonment” scheme, to cover drug-related crimes.

It was learned at the conference that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have something in common: from 70 to 80 percent of crimes are committed by people under the influence of illegal drugs. Those arrested or convicted for drug-related offenses account for the bulk of inmates in both local jails and national prisons.

In the Philippines, home imprisonment is allowed for certain minor offenses. Corrections chief Gregorio Catapang is reportedly eyeing the expansion of the program to cover convicted drug abusers and those incarcerated for minor drug-related crimes, but only after they have undergone rehabilitation and kicked the habit.

As part of the plan, Catapang wants to revitalize the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija. The center, built during the Duterte administration, has been underused, probably because the previous focus was on the neutralization rather than rehabilitation of drug suspects.

Alongside the thousands of suspects killed in Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, thousands of others were also rounded up and packed like sardines into cramped and poorly ventilated jails. The facilities were so crowded that inmates had to take turns sleeping on the floor and in bunks attached to the walls.

The overcrowding has markedly eased under the Marcos administration, whose emphasis is on the rehabilitation of drug abusers while at the same time catching large-scale drug traffickers.

Most of the prisons and local jails nationwide, however, remain congested. And among the reasons is the slow pace of justice. An arrested suspect, if unable to post bail, could stay behind bars longer than the maximum sentence prescribed for the offense. For the innocent who is locked up in jail, the delayed justice is an injustice for which redress is elusive.

Modern penology puts emphasis on correction or rehabilitation rather than the punishment of offenders. Along this line, the expansion of the home imprisonment scheme, if properly implemented, would be a welcome development. Decongesting prisons, however, must be complemented by measures to speed up the administration of justice.