EDITORIAL – Looking the other way

Modern penology emphasizes rehabilitation alongside punishment, giving importance to the humane treatment of prisoners. This concept, however, is being taken to extremes in this country, with the beneficiaries mainly drug traffickers and other inmates who have massive amounts of money to spread around.

The VIP treatment enjoyed by moneyed inmates, reported for a long time at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa, now seems to have spread to local jails. The other day, teams from different police units raided the Manila City Jail and found a cell equipped with five-star accommodations: air conditioning, flat-screen TV, a karaoke machine, king-size bed, mobile phones, its own small kitchen and office table.

The pampered inmate is Zhang Shu, arrested for drug trafficking in 2012. His cell also reportedly yielded shabu paraphernalia and bundles of cash. More contraband might have been found, but the cops were barred from entering his dormitory by members of the Batang City Jail gang, who reportedly demanded that the raiders observe “jail protocol.” Since the element of surprise was gone, it was no longer a raid but an inspection.

If combined teams from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Manila Police Special Weapons and Tactics unit cannot conduct a proper raid on a city jail, it shouldn’t be surprising that inmates are living it up. At the NBP, which is under the Bureau of Corrections, repeated raids over the past two years at the maximum security compound have failed to stop the entry of drugs, large amounts of cash, prostitutes, and items such as air conditioners, a sauna cubicle and Jacuzzi.

Prisoners, as the word implies, are supposed to have a highly regimented existence behind bars. Instead NBP inmates are believed to be running drug trafficking rings in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, with the dirty money used to buy all the VIP perks they want, including occasional stays in top hospitals outside prison.

This abuse can happen only if jail and corrections personnel are looking the other way. Authorities must put their foot down and stop this blight before it spreads to other detention facilities. If the government cannot stop blatant bribery and criminal activities operated by individuals behind bars, there’s no hope of ever curbing crime.