Life behind bars is like hell for prisoners in Philippine jails.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) confirmed in a July 1 press briefing that the Philippines now has the world’s most congested jails.
A study back in 2015 by the University of London Institute for Policy Research placed the Philippines at second with a 316 percent congestion rate, behind Haiti’s 454.4 percent.
With an inmate population of 135,052 in 466 jails, the country now has a 558 percent congestion rate, BJMP Chief Serafin Barretto said during the press briefing.
The number spiked a year into the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs.
Chief Serafin Barretto predicted that the inmate population might reach 200,000 by the end of the year.
“Our jails are so congested and are really not enough for all our inmates,” CNN Philippines quoted Barretto as saying.
The most overcrowded facility is the Biñan City Jail in Laguna with a capacity of only 22 inmates but is currently housing 602 inmates.
With only 11,980 personnel, Barretto added that they are seriously undermanned given the overwhelming number of prisoners.
“To be honest, because of our lack of personnel, there is a limitation in resources. We are really having difficulty. It’s hard for the personnel and wardens in those jails,” Barretto said, according to CNN Philippines.
BJMP is seeking to double their budget from ₱11.6 billion to about ₱20 billion to build more jails and solve this congestion problem.
Despite plans to build more jails, the BJMP chief also hope for the increase in number of prosecutors and judges to speed up the resolution of cases.
“Even if we build more jail buildings, more inmates will come and jails will become more congested because the release of prisoners is so slow,” the BJMP chief said, reports CNN Philippines.
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