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By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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MANILA – The Senate committee on justice and human rights has been asked to investigate the jail congestion problem in the country.
The 2016 International Centre for Prison Studies report ranked the Philippines 12th in the world with highest incarceration rate.
The country has a total prison population of 142,168, it said.
“This extreme overcrowding of prisoners in jails breeds a number of sever problems in jail management, including illness and poor hygiene among inmates, substandard sleeping accommodation, lack of food provision, among others,” said Sen. Leila de Lima.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in 2015 accounted for 93,961 prisoners or 398 percent congestion rate in all the 461 jails.
On the other hand, the Bureau of Corrections has 41,144 inmates in its seven prison and penal farms.
De Lima, former secretary of the Department of Justice, said she sent the justice panel a letter on Jan. 10 requesting its chairman to prioritize the resolution she filed in August last year.
Her Senate Resolution 97 sought to look into the current state of the country’s prison system. The resolution likewise included photos capturing the overcrowded jails and penitentiaries.
“Such appalling image depicts the deplorable state of jail and penitentiaries where prisoners suffer more severe penalty of horrific and barbaric living condition than the actual penalty that is supposed to be meted out for crimes they have committed,” the senator concluded./PN
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