BY PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA – Jails should be well-maintained, clean and adequately-equipped, said Sen. Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV.
Trillanes filed Senate Bill 793 seeking to create a Bureau of Correctional Services under the Department of Justice.
The bureau would be tasked to ensure the maintenance of detention facilities.
“An integrated prison and jail system is considered necessary to improve correctional services and solve jail congestion,” said Trillanes.
Jail congestion could lead to prison escapes and sanitation-related diseases, he warned.
Prisoners should likewise be treated with humanity, Trillanes stressed.
Earlier, Trillanes defended the “special treatment” given to senators detained for their so-called involvement in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.
The senators’ treatment in Camp Crame is the “global treatment to detainees,” he said.
Under Senate Bill 793, any person who employs degrading punishment against any prisoner, or who appears responsible for the use of substandard on inadequate penal facilities under subhuman conditions, shall be held administratively liable for grave misconduct.
“We are promoting a just and humane society. Treating detainees like dogs is not (proper),” said Trillanes.
He also said the government should reclassify prisoners based on their age, gravity of offense, and penalty imposed on them.
The move will help determine which jail these prisoners will be placed under custody, the solon said./PN
