Budget woes hit US prisons

LOS ANGELES – It would seem in comparison to our system, the US judicial system does seem to work. Even high profile personalities actually serve time in jail. Celebrity Martha Stewart served time for some stock trading anomaly. When was the last time anyone served a jail sentence in Manila for a similar stock market crime? No one went to jail for that BW insider trading thing, for instance.

In California, they have laws that call for mandatory jail time for recidivists. They are so efficient in doing just that to the point that California jails are bursting at the seams. California’s “three strike” policy punishes a felony, however minor, with decades of imprisonment. As a result, overcrowding has become so bad, the US Supreme Court has recently stepped in.

In a narrow vote, the US Supreme Court is forcing California to reduce its prison population by more than a quarter. The Court has called overcrowding a cruel and unusual punishment. As many as 46,000 prisoners will be freed, to bring down the prison population to 110,000 which is still a third higher than the system’s nominal capacity.

California has two years to comply. That means thousands of prisoners will be released on parole, causing the public to complain about the possible dangers to their communities. It doesn’t help that the arrested stalker of movie actress Halle Berry was a recently released jailbird with a string of criminal cases. But they don’t have a choice. California’s budget woes provide them no other option but to release prisoners before they serve their time.

I wonder how the US Supreme Court justices would react if they got a glimpse of our local and national jails. Overcrowding can’t quite describe our situation. When I was covering the police beat many years ago, I have heard of prisoners taking turns sleeping because there was just not enough room to lay down at the same time.

But that’s not what caught my attention with the news item. What I thought was significant was how their judicial system works. Folks do get punished for violations regardless of who they are. Our system is so rotten that it could be easily subverted from the start. Unless there is extreme media focus as is the case now with the Ampatuan massacre charges, anyone who is well connected and financially well off can easily get away with murder.

That was why I was thinking from the day the news broke out that we should extradite to the US the Filipino-American accused of smuggling stolen cars and motorcycles to Mindanao from Houston and other parts of the US instead of facing charges in the Philippines. That’s the only way we can show the world we do not condone such criminal actions that go beyond borders. Our country cannot be seen by the world as a haven for stolen cars and motorcycles on top of other things that have sullied our image with some amount of notoriety.

Letting the guy face charges in the US makes sense. The bigger crime was committed in the US and the FBI has built up what looks like a good case on him. The violations at home merely involve customs and car registration rules. Let the US file charges in Houston or elsewhere in the US, request for an extradition and let the guy serve time there. Afterwards, we can ask to send him back to face charges on the customs violations.

Given the political connections of the guy, it is unlikely that our judicial system can handle his case properly. Let him face the music in the US, his adopted country. I understand he is an American citizen anyway. Oh, how come we haven’t heard anything about this case lately? That doesn’t sound like anything good is happening in the shadows.

It is awesome for someone like me to watch how the American judicial system works. The recent insider trading convictions in New York delivers a strong message to a financial sector gone awry that they have to behave or else. Of course, the police work is also light years ahead of what we have. The surprising turnaround in the DSK case can only be the result of world class police work.

A working judicial system is an important pillar of any program to attract investors to come into the country. It isn’t just protection for capital that’s involved but personal security is also paramount in the minds of investors thinking of risking money in our country or elsewhere. 

Of course, we have to consider the budget woes of our police and the judicial system too. The PNP can’t be expected to perform in world class fashion when they don’t even have enough guns or computers. They need a computer system to replace the old blotter system. The police need a system at the police station level that is nationally online and interconnected with the NBI.

But the PNP’s budget is so inadequate they have to depend on the PCSO and Pagcor to complement it. Then again, the little money they do have, they waste on such things as junkets, something we all discovered with the Euro Generals scandal.

In today’s times, inadequate budgets have become the convenient excuses for a less than adequate criminal justice system. Yet, a good criminal justice system is at the very heart of civilized society. We just have to get our priorities right, whether you are in California or the Philippines, budget constraints notwithstanding.

Pagcor

I think the current Pagcor management fumbled in naming Danny Gozo, a past director, in the suit it filed against the old board led by its Chairman. I know Danny quite well and I got the impression he resigned his seat in the Pagcor Board precisely because he didn’t want his name sullied by things he knew could not be defended at Plaza Miranda.

Clear across the Pacific Ocean, I can smell internal politics within the P-Noy group behind this move to implicate Danny. This must have something to do with the Balai versus Samar war of attrition. Danny is a close confidant of Mar Roxas and was on top of the communications effort of the P-Noy campaign.

I have known Danny from our UP Mass Comm days and I know that if we can believe there can be an honest man in the Pagcor board, that is likely to be Mr Gozo. Needless to say, that leftist rabble rouser who sought Danny’s removal from the GSIS board doesn’t know what he is talking about.

Audits

Silvestre D. Sarmiento, a retired commissioner of COA, sent this e-mail in reaction to previous columns.  He is also a former Budget Director, Budget Commission, Malacañang and a former Auditor, DCAA/US Dept of Defense, Los Angeles, California.

Your columns are a must reading for many of us.  I agree with your comments and observations.

We should have a listing of all these foreign assisted programs and a regular monitoring of work accomplished and of fund releases. There should be transparency in foreign aid programs, especially as regards our own participation, using counterpart funds.

In the past some Commission on Audit auditors did conduct procedural aspects of contract auditing, including review of end results before payments were made based on peso counterpart provisions.  Reliance on post audit procedures, however, soon relegated this prior review function to the back burner.  In addition, disbursements from foreign fund sources were deemed “untouchable” and considered beyond our official scrutiny. 

As a Federal Auditor in the USA, we carried out “contract auditing,” review of big ticket items and especially of multi-year projects. Federal auditors authorized progress payments after review of claims. The review of maintenance and operational expenditures is the concern of agency internal auditors.

The Commission on Audit must continue to get timely feedback from affected agencies and contractors. Most important, agency heads must assume full financial responsibility over government funds under their authority and disposition.  They are responsible to set up and maintain proper internal control systems in their respective organizations. They must also instill in the mindset of their staff the much-needed integrity and the commitment to a zero-free graft work place.  

Like Caesar’s wife, government officials themselves must be above reproach. There must a way out of our Aegean stables of graft and corruption

On the merits

Taking his seat in his chambers, the judge faced the opposing lawyers. “So,” he said, “I have been presented, by both of you, with a bribe.”

Both lawyers squirmed uncomfortably. “You, attorney Leon, gave me $15,000. And you, attorney Campos, gave me $10,000.”

The judge reached into his pocket and pulled out a check. He handed it to Leon … “Now then, I’m returning $5,000, and we’re going to decide this case solely on its merits.”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco