Jails remain congested due to more detainees with drug cases

June 6, 2018

Jail cells under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) remain congested, nearly two years into President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown on illegal drugs.

Senior Inspector Xavier Solda, BJMP spokesman, said 144,814 inmates are confined into the bureau's 482 jails nationwide as of Wednesday, higher than the ideal capacity of  25,000 prisoners. The bureau only has 12,113 officers and personnel.

Before Duterte took office, there 98,000 detainees. Of the number, 102,668 or 70.95 percent of  the detainees are facing drug-related charges.

Meanwhile, 10,781 prisoners are facing murder cases followed by rape with 7,942 and robbery with 5,417. The other detainees were charged with homicide, theft and physical injury.

The top three jails with the highest congestion rates are the Navotas City Jail with 3,872 percent followed by the Binan City Jail in Laguna with 2,770 percent and General Trias City Jail in Cavite with 2,622 percent.

United Nations (UN) standards say a minimum of 4.7 square meters is the recommended space for every detainee.

Solda said there is a slight decrease in the congestion rate when compared to the situation last January where they had 146,147 prisoners,  or lower by 0.91 percent.

Among the factors which contributed to the decrease is BJMP's coordination with courts on the status of the prisoners' cases.

“We also strengthened the paralegal programs and the granting of good conduct time allowance to persons deprived of liberty under our care to decongest our jails,” Solda said in a news conference in Quezon City.

Last year, the national government earmarked P1.7 billion for the construction of more detention facilities. DMS