Fifty-four years old alias “Bernie” has languished behind bars at the Davao City Jail the past 15 years—without having been convicted of the crime he was accused of— attempted murder. It turns out that his case has yet to undergo trial pending the return of his sanity.
Bernie, who has been in jail far longer than most jailguards, like SJ02 Jason Taculin who has been assigned there the last 12 years, is a mental hospital outpatient and had been advised to take regular medication while in jail.
Taculin said Bernie is not violent at all and looks as normal as the other inmates, except that anyone who talks to him soon realizes that there is something thing wrong with him.
Bernie is a model prisoner. Unlike many mental patients and prisoners, he has exhibited good behavior and has never made an attempt to escape.
Jail Chief Inspector and Davao City Jail Warden Erwin Kenny Ronquillo had asked the court to dismiss Bernie’s case so they could send him home to his family.
“The problem is, his family no longer wants him back. And the court refuses to dismiss his case if the police cannot turn him over to his family,” Ronquillo said.
Meanwhile, at the Davao City Female Jail, one inmate who had been detained for six years, topped a TESDA-administered skills examination and was eventually acquitted. She is now in Lebanon working as a caretaker.
The stories of these two people who, for obvious reasons, remain nameless and faceless here, lead entirely different lives from the rest, represent the two faces of life inside the two penal facilities mentioned here.
The two, despite not having been convicted of any crime, already carry for the rest of their lives the stigma attached to anyone who has seen the outside world from behind iron bars.
“We want to erase the stigma that prisoners are people who should be feared; hindi lahat sila eh masama (not all of them are bad) but even if it is true, their life in jail is an opportunity for them to reform,” said Jail Inspector Ian Glen Ocmen, Chief of Operations and Inmates Welfare and Development.
The world has seen the more than 1,000 Cebu inmates who have danced their way to the top of the YouTube chart with nearly 4.4 million hits to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Which only goes to show that life behind prison bars can be made bearable through the exercise of one’s hidden talents.
Davao region jails a test of endurance
While inmates of Davao region jails have yet to appear on YouTube to show case their talents, their claim to dubious fame is being able to survive, given the over-populated and under-budgeted prison conditions in the region.
The Davao City Jail’s ideal capacity should be about 400 inmates, but the number of inmates at any given time is around 1,000. None of the inmates, aged 19 to 59, has been sentenced yet for the crime he is charged with despite being detained for years.
“Our jails are congested by more than 130 percent; laging last priority ang jail sa budget deliberations, so we cannot do anything to improve our facilities even after we have proposed construction of additional projects,” Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) 11 ARD for Administration Jail Superintendent Efren Nemeño said.
Majority, or 407, of the prisoners in the Davao City Jail are facing drug cases, while 224 others are charged with murder. The rest are awaiting judgment for other crimes, like rape (148), robbery (112), theft (68), homicide (52), physical injury (7) and other crimes.
Chief Inspector and Warden Grace Taculin said there are 130 prisoners in the Davao City Female Jail and 177 others in the regional jail. Their ages range from 22 to 62 years.
“Up to 65 percent of female prisoners are here on drug related cases, but none has yet been convicted,” Taculin said. All prisoners here are awaiting trial or sentencing for crimes penalized with than three years imprisonment. Those accused of crimes with a penalty of three or more years are transferred to the Dapecol Correctional Institution for Women.
Davao City Jail’s more than a thousand inmates are crammed into over 20 prison cells. The smallest cells have a capacity of up to 20 inmates while the bigger ones can hold between 50 to 60 prisoners at one time.
Nemeño said each prisoner is allocated a daily food allowance of P50, and that includes the cost of fuel or charcoal used for cooking the food.
While the prisoners are not there for a vacation, still they live a wretched life.
“People from the Alexian facility visit the jail to conduct sputum tests on the prisoners,” Ronquillo said. The test specimens, which were brought to the city before for examination, are now examined at the City jail which now houses a facility headed by a medical technologist.
Ronquillo said the overcrowding and the heat inside the prison have led to a high incidence of skin allergies among prisoners.
It is however a different story at the spacious Tagum City jail. “Maluwang dito sa Tagum City Jail and while we have only a 160-person capacity, it is not congested and one cell has 17 inmates compared to the other jails that are congested with up to 100 persons.”
Jail for females
The city’s jail for female prisoners has transformed into something else after the inmates were trained in various skills. Trade fair participants are particularly familiar about the creativity of these female inmates, especially when it comes to producing crocheted bags.
“Our female inmates undergo the therapeutic community modality program,” Taculin said. They are also trained in various livelihood projects and the different courses under Tesda.
Lately though, the female prisoners are no longer simply into crocheting. Taculin said they have recently opened a bakery which sells pandesal to the neighborhood. The inmates also offer washing and pressing services for only P16 per kilo,
The city government is also supporting the City jail in terms of the deployment of personnel and the contribution of a budget of P500,000 for 2009.
“However, the budget has remained the same the past six years and we would like to request for an additional budget support of P200,000,” he said.
Whether people want to admit it or not, the popular perception is that prisoners are dangerous members of society. And even when they return to their families after serving their terms, they already carry a stigma.
Ocmen said this is the reason why they are taking a different approach in rehabilitating the prisoners. “Whether we like it or not, inmates can reintegrate into our society.”
With the capability-building trainings provided to male and female inmates, they are at least empowered and allowed to learn new skills which would, hopefully, help them find livelihood opportunities when they go out of jail and live normal lives again as responsible members of society. [Lovely A. Carillo]
