CEBU, Philippines - Most jail facilities operated by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Central Visayas are overcrowded by more than 200 percent of its capacity.
BJMP records show that Central Visayas is third among the regions nationwide to have the most congested detention facilities. There are 31 jails operated by BJMP in Region-7 and 30 of them are congested.
The National Capital Region has the most number of congested jails followed by Region 4-A. According to statistics, the 31 jail facilities in Central Visayas are only capable of having 2,102 inmates.
However, the latest figure shows that the total number of inmates in the region is already 7,924.
The BJMP statistics show that while the 31 jails in the region have a total area of nine hectares but only one hectare is being used for detention cells. Ideally, one hectare can only accommodate over 2,000 inmates.
Among the jails that are congested is the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan. Jail Warden Jason Calub said that the facility is built only for 1,500 inmates. However, as of yesterday, there were already 2,052 inmates. Most of the prisoners are facing drug-related cases.
Calub said most prisoners are aged 18 to 46 years old. There are 155 senior citizens. Minor detainees are kept in another facility called Operations Second Chance also in the same barangay.
The records also show that there are 129 insular prisoners or those that were sentenced to suffer an imprisonment of more than three years and one day.
The policy of the jail authorities is to transfer insular prisoners to any national penitentiary like the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.
There are also nine detainees that have been staying in jail for preventive imprisonment but their period of detention is already beyond the maximum imposable penalty of their cases. 18 of the close to 8,000 prisoners in Central Visayas are foreigners who are facing different criminal cases. (FREEMAN)