JAIL DECONGESTION. Jail Supt. Grace Taculin, jail warden of the Davao City Jail announces the plan to establish a new prison facility to decongest the city’s prison facilities. Taculin said the Maa jail is intended for 384 inmates, but is currently filled with 2,982 prisoners. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Davao City Jail’s new facility will start construction early next year to address congestion in the city’s prisons.
In a news briefing Wednesday morning, Jail Supt. Grace Taculin said the eight-hectare facility will be constructed in Wangan, Calinan.
She said the new facility will have a 5,000 inmate capacity, which will decongest the Maa City Jail, where high risk, elderly, female, and those with health problems will remain.
The rest will be transferred to the new facility upon construction. The project’s approved budget is at P236 million.
Citing government data, Taculin said Maa City Jail’s capacity was housing 2,983 inmates against its 384-man capacity, making the congestion rate at 677 percent. Ideally, there should be 4.7 square meters for each inmate, Taculin said.
She also said 70 percent of the inmates are currently detained for drug related cases.
Three hectares will house prison buildings, while the remaining area will be allocated for organic farming and an industrial complex.
Meanwhile, Taculin said the BJMP is enhancing their Inmates Development Program.
Three of the jail cells in the new complex will be converted into classrooms using the curriculum set by the University of Southeastern Philippines. The city jail will be offering courses related to healthcare, computer literacy, and agriculture.
“Inmates who graduated from the city jail’s own Alternative Learning Center will be eligible for the offering,” Taculin said.
Apart from the religious enhancement programs, the city jail has also been enrolling inmates in the Alternative Learning System, which started in 2004. The program has produced 58 graduates, Taculin said.
Taculin also mentioned that they will be partnering with the University of Texas for possible postgraduate programs.
Aside from its educational efforts, Taculin said the new facility will also offer livelihood programs.
“We have human resources in the facility, we call them human capital. We can use them to farm the space. We also invited factories to establish factories where we will provide the labor force,” Taculin said. (davaotoday.com)
