Cebu City plans to revive ‘Operation Decongestion’ for City Jail
Visitors at the Cebu City Jail wait for their chance to enter the facility to visit their jailed loved ones inside. | Cebu Daily News file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government is considering reviving the “Operation Decongestion” of the Cebu City Jail by helping the inmates apply for probation and help them in their cases.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said the overcrowding in the two dormitories of the Cebu City Jail had caused various problems including health, septic problems, and internal conflicts among inmates.
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“I am glad that there is a project to decongest the City Jail. The city is ready to support the decongestion (efforts), if there is going to be a construction,” said the mayor during the first anniversary of the Cebu City Justice Zone on Friday, October 11, 2019.
The city government plans to partner with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter to help the inmates hasten their cases in court or for convicts to file for probation, or temporary freedom.
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Labella said the city could also help those with civil crime cases to settle these with the aggrieved parties, so these individuals would no longer stay long in the City Jail.
“One of the solutions to this congestion is really speedy trial,” he said.
The mayor is also pushing for training of professional inmates to become paralegals so they can help out their fellow inmates on their cases, and further hasten the process.
He has instructed the City Jail warden to provide the city a report on the status of the City Jail Male and Female Dormitories and make a “wishlist” of what can be improved in the correctional facilities.
He said the city government could help ease the congestion problems of the jail by providing better amenities temporarily, as they would look for long term solutions for decongestion.
Labella said the goal of the City Jail should be to reform the inmates, the system must be corrective and remedial, and the city must help to keep it that way./dbs
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