Context
Decongestion of the country's cramped and overcrowded jails stands to be one of the main thrusts of The Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation. Its work with the prisoners has enabled The Foundation to become aware of the problems and issues that plague not only prisoners but the country's penal system as well. The following are only some of these concerns encountered by The Foundation:
- congested jails characterized by sub-human living conditions;
- scheduling of hearings to a much later date, resulting in the prolonged incarceration of detainees, due to clogged court dockets;
- delay in proceedings occasioned by the transfer or promotion of judges;
- delay in the preparation and issuance of judgment and/or release orders;
- social bias and prejudice against prisoners who are generally
- considered as outcasts;
- punitive mindset and approach towards prisoners;
- manacling of children on their way to, during, and after their hearings in violation of the law
- use of nylon cords to manacle inmates in two's or three's on the way to, during, and after their hearings due to lack of handcuffs;
- prisoners' ignorance and/or inability to avail of the various modes of securing their temporary liberty pending the trial of their cases;
- prisoners' ignorance of penal laws and legal proceedings and in most cases even of the status of their own cases;
- citizens', especially children's, powerlessness in the face of arrest and police detention;
- stiff penalties for victimless crimes like drug use and/or
- possession, gambling, possession of firearms and/or deadly weapon, as well as for property-related offenses (theft and robbery);
- child detention remains to be the measure of first resort and for the longest period, contrary to RA 8369 (Family Courts Act of 1997);
- lack of familial support for child detainees;
- lack of appropriate treatment for detainees with mental disability;
- non-availability of any social worker for adult prisoners
- manual record management system at the Quezon City Jail.
On top of these issues and concerns, detainees also face their own
personal and familial problems. Their prolonged detention has deprived them of their fundamental human right to earn a means of livelihood, thereby affecting their family members as well who rely upon them for sustenance and support.
Detainees also suffer from a poor self-esteem occasioned by their
prolonged imprisonment. They experience social alienation brought about by the stigma of detention.
