Injustice

It’s amazing how so many illnesses pop up when people land in jail. I bet anyone will weep incessantly and suffer a panic attack - heart palpitations, high blood pressure and “neurocirculatory asthenia” or shortness of breath - if detained in a typical Philippine jail.

Those were the afflictions that reportedly compelled custodians at the Camp Bagong Diwa female detention facility to rush Jessica “Gigi” Reyes out of jail and to a nearby government hospital at 1 a.m. yesterday, shortly after she was transferred to the camp from her basement holding room at the Sandiganbayan.

If you’re a hampas-lupa inmate in jail for picking pockets for your day’s meal, you can have a seizure at the sight of cockroaches and cat-size rats in your crowded cell. For your troubles, you’ll probably get bawled out by the jail guard and warned that you’ll get solitary confinement (perhaps in a mop closet, since police jails don’t have such special cells) if you don’t quit overacting.

If you’re a Senate hotshot accused of skimming hundreds of millions in people’s money, you get rushed to a hospital for emergency treatment and an overnight reprieve from the icky-poo company of the great unwashed at Camp Bagong Diwa.

Yesterday Reyes renewed her request to be detained, like senators, at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame. Her lawyer argued that this would give her quick access to treatment at the PNP General Hospital where, surely by coincidence, her former boss and co-accused Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile may be detained during his trial.

The Sandiganbayan should stand firm on its rulings and ignore not-so-subtle messages from Malacañang on how to deal with certain issues in the pork barrel cases. These cases are starting to be held up as proof that there are two types of justice in this country: one for the poor and the other for the rich.

Our courts should start dispelling such perceptions and show to the world that Philippine justice truly is blind.

At the same time, our courts should realize that the plight of these high-profile inmates – with more expected to follow – is putting in the spotlight the sorry state of Philippine jails.

The overcrowding is due not just to the insufficiency of detention facilities but also the weakness of our judicial system.

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There are ways of decongesting local jails. These facilities hold even individuals arrested for misdemeanors but are too poor to post bail, including those apprehended for vagrancy – the charge slapped on women rounded up on suspicion of prostitution.

In some cases, individuals who can afford bail are forced to spend a weekend in jail when they are arrested and booked in the final court working hours of Friday. Some arresting officers do this deliberately as a favor to a friend or even in exchange for a fee from a complainant.

Misdemeanor convictions carry a penalty of about a month behind bars, but delays in court proceedings can make the jail stay longer.

The delays are worse for heavier offenses. Conviction for possession of a small amount of drugs can mean at least two years in prison, but the trial can drag longer than that.

If the defendant is innocent but can’t afford bail, he would have to stay in a local jail while being tried, unable to earn a living, away from loved ones, and deprived of precious years in his life.

Whether a defendant is guilty or innocent, the general inefficiency of our justice system is an injustice.

The congestion and inhumane conditions in our jail facilities are also violations of human rights.

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It’s not impossible to ease the congestion. Until about three decades ago, for example, the city of Manila had a night court, operating from 6 p.m. to midnight, to speed up handling of misdemeanor cases and allow suspects to post bail after regular office hours.

Judiciary officials should also develop a system of community service in lieu of prison time as punishment for minor offenses. It will mean lower expenses for taxpayers, and the community can benefit from the services rendered, which can be sweeping streets, pruning bushes in parks or helping in charity institutions.

Our tough drug laws can be amended so that first-time offenders indicted for possession of a small amount of drugs can opt for entering a rehabilitation program plus community service in lieu of a prison term.

That was the deal approved for Nora Aunor by a US court for drug possession – a case that cost her the National Artist Award.

Our heavy penalties for drug offenses can be reserved for drug traffickers, shabu manufacturers, pushers who target schools, and recidivist drug users.

A system of community service in lieu of imprisonment must be supported by teams that can monitor compliance with the penalty imposed.

Prison sentences can also be reduced, based on good behavior, and the rest of the sentence served under house arrest, with the prisoner’s movements limited. But this calls for an effective monitoring system to ensure that the terms of the release will not be violated. In the US, the convict on conditional release must use an ankle bracelet for constant monitoring by authorities.

Martha Stewart was required to use an ankle bracelet. So was Timothy Mark Garcia, a son of Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, the former military comptroller who was convicted of plunder in a case where his wife and sons were his co-accused. Timothy Mark wore the ankle bracelet while under house arrest in New York where he worked as a publicist for Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Measures to decongest jails must of course be accompanied by efforts to upgrade the facilities.

The snail’s pace of Philippine justice makes the public think it’s punishment enough to put criminals in jail as their trial drags on for years. If jail time makes the inmate understand the meaning of hell in a very small place, then it’s a good day for justice.

Not all people tossed into jail, however, are guilty. And even if they are, our society is supposed to uphold human rights and promote the rehabilitation of convicts.

Sure, Gigi Reyes deserves humane treatment in detention. But so do all other inmates. At present, humane treatment of jailbirds is reserved only for the rich and influential who account for .001 percent of the inmate population.

This is an injustice waiting to be corrected.