One immediate response of our government to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the release of thousands of inmates in danger of infection and death in the nation’s congested prisons.
Prison congestion has long been a problem in our justice system because of limited facilities and the detention of many crime suspects unable to post bail, while awaiting trial in courts with similarly congested schedules, as well as many children in conflict with the law.
Early this year, as the virus continued to spread in the country, Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra ordered the Bureau of Corrections and the Board of Pardons to expedite the release of sick and elderly prisoners.
In the House of Representatives, the Committee on Justice similarly proposed the temporary release of elderly prisoners, those with serious health problems, and first-time offenders.
The Supreme Court (SC) issued guidelines calling for the release of prisoners who had already served the minimum period of their jail terms. SC Administrator Midas Marquez said the court ordered trial courts to speed up the release of qualified inmates, adopting the use of video teleconferencing to speed up the process.
This week, the SC announced that from March 17 to August 14, a total of 58,625 prison inmates had been released all over the country – led by 12,726 in the National Capital Region, 10,354 in Calabarzon, 7,855 in Central Luzon, 6,970 in Central Visayas, and 4,483 in the Ilocos Region. The process continues and many more qualified inmates will be released in the coming months.
It is a process that should have been undertaken much earlier because of the congestion in the country’s jails, which at one time became the subject of an exposé in foreign publications featuring photos of half-naked prisoners trying to sleep on the stairs in the prison because there was no space in the cells.
Nothing came of that exposé but the COVID-19 pandemic has moved the government to action. Already released are 58,625 prisoners of various categories qualified under various provisions of law and many more are being released as the legal processes continue.
They will continue as long as the pandemic rages around the country and remains a threat to human life in congested conditions. Even after the COVID-19 ceases to be a threat to the country, the legal processes launched by the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court should continue until all deserving detainees are released and our prisons cease to be cesspools of congestion and disease.