THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is seeking congressional approval of a P63.59-million allocation to hire 500 new jail officers for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) next year and another P201.62 million to help improve the BJMP’s security capabilities and decongest overcrowded facilities for inmates.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said the hiring of new jail officers under the proposed 2009 national budget will help address the acute shortage of manpower in the BJMP, where there is only one jail guard for every 53 inmates.

The United Nations standard for jail custodial ratio is one officer for every seven inmates.

The BJMP exercises supervision over 150 district jails, 93 city jails, 835 town jails, two youth centers and two female dormitories nationwide.

The proposed P201.62-million capital outlay for the bureau under the proposed 2009 budget will be used to construct new jail buildings and offices and procure short and long firearms, prisoners’ vans and other equipment like gas masks, Puno said.

He said that for 2009, the BJMP plans to procure 250 handguns, which requires an allocation of P12.7 million; 125 rifles, P18.15 million; 150 prisoners’ vans, P127.05 million; and other equipment like gas masks, tear-gas canisters and computers, P5.842 million.

For the construction of new jail buildings, regional offices, additional cells for inmates and perimeter fences, the DILG is seeking an allocation of P39.46 million next year.

This year the BJMP’s budget of P3.4 billion includes allocations for creating 500  new jail-officer positions; procurement of handcuffs, short firearms, long firearms and prisoners’ vans; and the construction of new jail buildings and facilities.

However, despite hiring more officers, the present personnel strength of the BJMP at 7,476 is only 15 percent of the ideal manpower requirement of 31,643 for the bureau for a total jail population of over 60,000 inmates, Puno noted.

For an average of 6,000 inmates nationwide who need to be transported to and from court daily, the BJMP only has 130 prisoners’ vans, 8,085 serviceable handcuffs, 4,034 short and 1,239 long firearms.

Even more alarming, an estimated 48 percent of its jail officers have not been issued firearms as a result of the supply shortfall.

Puno, likewise, pointed that additional jails are needed to decongest existing facilities, where inmates are now packed in the most primitive and inhuman conditions, causing deaths from diseases and jail disturbances.

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DILG seeks P265.2 million for jails

THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is seeking congressional approval of a P63.59-million allocation to hire 500 new jail officers for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) next year and another P201.62 million to help improve the BJMP’s security capabilities and decongest overcrowded facilities for inmates.