DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology announced that it will celebrate the “National Correctional Consciousness Week” to promote awareness about the plight of the prisoners and detainees in the city.
The celebration heremay be off-tangent, showing the BJMP jail in a “sorry” state because it is both congested and infested with communicable diseases.
The BJMP here wanted the public to see the condition of the prisoners inside the jail, noting that the jail congestion already increased up to 900 percent due to lack of jail facilities, according to Harvey Bryan Malnegro, BJMP community relations officer.
“As much as possible, we would like to tell the public to avoid these kind of conditions,” he said.
Malnegro said the jail capacity of the BJMP is for 280 inmates only but as of now, there are 2,947 inmates inside the jail.
The packed condition at the BJMP jail has been blamed to proliferation of communicable diseases among the prisoners.
Malnegro confirmed the existence of tuberculosis inside the BJMP. “But we have our own TB center inside with our health personnel giving treatment to those infected prisoners.”
He said BJMP’s health personnel are closely working with the City Health Office (CHO) and Department of Health (DOH) to monitor the health conditions of the prisoners.
Meanwhile, BJMP prisoners will hold a series of activities commencing Oct. 24-31 inside the prison facility.
Highlights of the celebration include paralegal and health services for the prisoners. Also, entertainment and sports activities will be conducted.
“During the opening of the celebration a while ago, we had a parade and an awarding for those who won from the different sports activities prior to the celebration inside the jail,” Malnegro said.
Apart from Davao’s BJMP, prison facilities across the country, Malnegro said, will also hold similar celebration by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 551 dated March 15, 1995. (davaotoday.com)
