EDITORIAL - One good idea should be followed by more

There is good news for those who have been long waiting in prison for their day in court. There is now a proposal to set the bail of indigent inmates waiting in jail for bailable offenses to a maximum of P10,000.

This is a good move to decongest our prisons.

We know how the justice system works here in the Philippines. Those who belong to the poorer classes are more easily charged for crimes, sometimes for crimes they may not even be guilty of. They also tend to wait longer for their day in court compared to moneyed or influential inmates.

The wait can sometimes take years and the more time they spend in prison, the more they lose their innocence as the more they are exposed to actual criminal elements and criminal activities.

Setting the bail low should allow some of them to escape what can be bad influences.

Now it should be followed up by another good idea; how to reform those left in the prisons.

We have been saying for a long time that our prisons aren’t really places where inmates get rehabilitated, but rather places where they become better criminals after they get exposed to gangs, people who know how to get around the system, and even crime kingpins who run their criminal enterprises from there.

Having fewer prisoners means having more control over them and anything they might be doing.

This should also be followed up by another idea; more help for those who have just been released from prison. It’s a sad fact that many of those who just left jail cannot adjust to life outside. Just like newly-rehabilitated drug addicts who don’t get enough support, they end up falling into their old routine, reoffending, and ending up in jail again, creating a vicious cycle.

It is worth mentioning that Cebu City Hall seems to have taken the right step in this regard after it hired three former inmates as employees in the Department of Social Welfare Services.

A lot needs to be done to reform our penal system here, but at least it seems this latest proposal to lower bail for deserving inmates is a step in the right direction.