Ofelia P. Lapas, jail deputy for operations, also said the lack of facilities and existing jail policies do not yet allow nursing mothers to nurse their babies in jail. The babies are sent home after birth.
Lapas said that after a jail riot that occurred in Manila years ago, the Maa city jail has stopped allowing kids to stay with their mothers inside the jail for a long time to prevent accidents.
At least, 95 per cent of women behind bars are mothers, she said.
Among the women inmates, Gina Talingting, 42, smiles as she takes a whiff of fresh air in the veranda of one of the newly built duplexes. It was about 3:30 p.m., and women in pink t-shirts are coming out of the other duplexes to spend an afternoon gardening.
“Unlike before, where we were housed inside congested, windowless rooms, we can now have a chance to look around and move around,” she confides.
She said she is happy that they were moved out of the old facility to this new village. The houses serve as their sleeping quarters at night and a workroom in the daytime. “It is where the women pray, talk to each other, work, learn new things, or sing,” said Talingting.
Maa city jail new facility reminds women of their home village. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
The old place– a three-room structure at the back of the men’s quarters–used to be so congested that 37 women had to share one toilet, and one room held as many as 67 inmates, Pontillo said. Talingting, who spent the last three years in the old facility, said a fight among the inmates could erupt at the slightest cause because of the poor living condition there.
“It was so crowded, there was hardly space to move around,” she said. They used to live and sleep on rickety wooden bunk beds, two persons in each bed. Some even had to sleep on the floor.
Here, she said, they even have water for washing. Each duplex can house only 10 people. After the wake up call at 5:30 in the morning and the roll call, they go about washing their clothes at the faucet at the back or taking a bath. Each house has a built in toilet and bath and begins to feel like home, she says. (Germelina Lacorte/davaotoday.com)
Gender Issues
