PRISON WITHOUT WALLS

Justice Ramon Mabutas, Jr.

Man is essentially a moral creature with the free will to choose between good and evil--hence, modern penology places more stress upon the effect or result of the felonious act than upon man, the criminal himself. Consequently, the purpose of penalty is retribution--for the convicted individual to be reformed and rehabilitated. Thus, he is sent to the penitentiary for this purpose.

Such purpose, however, appears to have been beclouded by recent developments which have given rise to the general belief that prisons/penitentiaries are breeding places of organized transnational crimes. Is there a legal anchorage for such belief?

My initial encounter with the fourth pillar of the criminal justice system, i.e., corrections, was more than fifty years ago--when I started my career as a journalist. My first assignment was the national penitentiary in our country, then called the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa, which is some fifty kilometers south of the City of Manila. (I am sure some of you here have seen the place, because it was one of the tour-destinations during the ACPF’s third World Conference in the Philippines). I also covered the Women’s Correctional in Mandaluyong, some fifteen kilometers east of Manila. Having had a free access to the prison-compounds, I was able to interview and talk with inmates, some of them well-known prisoners-of-war, who were then confined therein. Parenthetically, I was a reporter at the penitentiary when the first jailbreak in the Philippines happened in the late forties and when the first death penalty (electrocution) was executed. Thus, I came to know the problems of the officials therein and their wards.

At that time, however, congestion was not a problem, although I observed that some prisoners were not doing anything. Perhaps due to congestion or lack of something better to do, the detained individuals have all the time to talk about their past nefarious activities and at the same time discuss future plans to improve their criminal skills when they are released. Worse, they form syndicates for future operations--and even on a wider scale, perhaps to other countries. Thus, instead of being reformed/rehabilitated, the prisoners take a turn for the worse--and from worse to the worst. As the saying goes, idleness breeds crime/criminality. Such situation thereby gave rise to the new prevailing belief that prisons/penitentiaries are the breeding places of organized transnational crimes. The criminal justice system, in general, is resultantly cast in a bad light. This drove me to submit varied proposals:

Our first proposal is to make the prisoners/inmates busy, e.g. make them engage in cottage industries and other endeavors, so that they will have no time to entertain mischievous ideas and plans. They should be made to work just like the inmates at the Fuchu prison in Tokyo--no gallivanting--and their products should be marketed. At the same time, their supervisors should see to it that they are totally reformed/rehabilitated during their detention/confinement.

In this connection, as legal consultant of the Prison Fellowship Philippines about fourteen years ago, I proposed a scheme which I called “Prison Without Walls” to solve the brewing problem of prison congestion. My idea was to allow trusted prisoners--after serving a number of years in prison with good conduct--to work in private firms (like ordinary laborers) with pay. Their salary will be divided into three--one third will go to the government (for his sustenance while in prison); the second third will be sent to their families for the latter’s support, and the last portion will be placed in a trust fund which can be withdrawn by them upon their release from detention (to be used as capital in whatever endeavor they choose to undertake). Such scheme would have relieved the government of expenses for prisons and inmates. Although viewed as a novel idea by the then Secretary (Minister) of Justice, the same was never concretized.

Another proposal--to stave off prison congestion--is to put up prison colonies where the inmates can undertake agricultural endeavors. This is especially recommended in countries, like the Philippines, which have wide tracks of uncultivated lands. Experience has shown that such colonies can later be converted to urban areas which can contribute to the progress of a nation. In the Philippines, we have three prison colonies.

Still another proposal is to convert islands into prison colonies. Detention in such islands erases the problem of escape. This solution is best exemplified in the case of Australia.

Finally, to put an end to the problem of prisons’ congestion, expansion of the coverage of probation is another option. However, before even considering this choice seriously, it has to be determined first whether probation has been effective in reforming/rehabilitating the convicted individuals. Speaking of probation, I take note that countries have varied laws on the matter.

Above all, simultaneous with the afore-mentioned proposals should be the inculcation of virtues/values on the inmates--they may still turn out to be ideal/model citizens when they go back to their respective communities. In my prisons fellowship group, I know of two member who became active ministers of their religion after serving their sentence at the national penitentiary. As I always say, if all citizens in this globe are possessed with virtues/values, crimes will dissipate into oblivion.

I submit that the foregoing will put an end to the problem of over crowding in prisons/penitentiaries--and will ultimately lead to a total reformation/rehabilitation of the inmates, turning them into useful citizens, worthy of reaching the third millennium.

Thank you.