Eapp Reaction Paper

KYLE D.
GACUSANA MAY
25, 2021
ABM 11-C ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL
PURPOSES
SEMESTER 2 – QUARTER 3
PERFORMANCE TASK (REACTION PAPER)
Concern About Prison Overcrowding Amidst Pandemic

The picture above illustrates the current situation of almost all jail institutions
in the Philippines. Every prison cell was greatly packed with inmates exceeding their
maximum occupancy rate. In fact, our country had the highest prison occupancy in
the world with 534 percent based on Bureau of Jail Management and Penology
(BJMP). I personally feel that this is truly pitiful and alarming especially today when
Coronavirus outbreak continued spreading around the globe. Social distancing can’t
be followed there and their health is not prioritized so that makes them extremely
vulnerable to the virus. Therefore, severely overpopulated jails in our country
should be addressed immediately by the authorities mainly because of COVID-19
pandemic.
I realized that the main problem in this issue is the never-ending prison
overcrowding in our country. It roots from Duterte’s war on drugs since 2016
because more than 220,000 people were arrested. Afraid to be killed by police and
reasoned that they used illegal drugs later on, they turn themselves to jails where
they think the safer place for them. The jail population drastically increased when
thousands more have been temporarily held since March 2020 for violating
quarantine protocols meant to curb the spread of novel coronavirus. Instead of
maintaining order, I think they just exacerbated the situation and piled all of them
up beyond capacity to the point that detention centers were bursting at the seams.
Authorities should give justice to the society and provide larger and more
comfortable prisons for the detainees at the same time. They should made sure that
there is still enough space for everyone to breathe because their privacy and
comfort is the priority of jail institutions regardless of their criminal offenses. On the
other hand, the incarceration system in our country should be held accountable too,
particularly the trials and pre-trials that were prolonged enough to make detainees
suffer even though they were still not proven guilty. Consequently, COVID-19 was
spreading more quickly in detention facilities and the jail institutions hardly
manages it because of prison overpopulation.
Just like the prisoners’ families, my concern is also about the health and well-
being of the prisoners; especially to the elderly, pregnant women and those who
have pre-existing medical conditions and weak immune system. 1As Jamela
Alindogan said, the inmates and detainees are the hidden victims of the COVID-19
pandemic (Aljazeera, 2020). With every detention center congested with detainees,
I guess that their resources were allocated scarcely and minimum health standards
were impossible to achieve. Also, the poor ventilation, inadequate sanitation and
the low quality of food, compounded by overcrowding, contribute to the spread of
infectious diseases in jails. It is evident that the jail facilities were not equipped to
respond to a pandemic and must be responded right away before it’s too late.
Sadly, inmates felt helpless and just waiting for virus to come to them according to
some interviews. The situation they are in puts their health at greater risk, including
the wardens and jail management personnel that guard them. Based on statistics,
hundreds of inmates tested positive for COVID-19 in the country and if this will
continue, my fear heightens that Philippine jails will emerge as the epicenter of the
virus.
This issue must be a wake-up call for the government to make a move
because it ripples through as a public health case as it is a matter of life and death
not only for the detainees but for the public as well. The society should also be
aware that the most vulnerable are those behind bars and it should be dealt
immediately before a catastrophe will happen. I suggest the decongesting of
detention centers and prisons by releasing vulnerable, elderly, sick, pregnant and
low-risk offenders, as well as those already due for parole, and those due for
release, which was interrupted by quarantine regulations. Additionally, it is also
critically important to isolate offenders at high risk, attending their healthcare needs
1
https://www.aljazeera.com/videos/2020/04/21/philippines-jails-many-inmates-staff-test-positive-for-covid-19/?
utm_source=website&utm_medium=article_page&utm_campaign=read_more_links
through regularly checked health regimens, and making sure the country’s
detention facilities are equipped to take on the coronavirus. Getting ahead of this
situation of prison overcrowding now eliminates the threats to the lives of prisoners
whose health the authorities have a duty to protect.

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KYLE D.

Concern About Prison Overcrowding Amidst Pandemic

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