Freedom and Death Inside the Jail.pdf - The Action Program for ...

Toward a Reformative Penal System
Alongside the black market, there sprouted the underground
market which provides inmates more than their basic needs. This
market gives inmates access to drugs, liquor, and other illegal
commodities.
The presence of black and underground markets has created
an economic system where moneyed inmates can re-create the
lifestyle they used to enjoy outside the Jail. They do not have
to depend on the Jail’s food rations, they can have their privacy
back through the kubol, and they can do drugs. They can pay
poor inmates to do their cell duties for them, such as cleaning the
comfort room and running errands. They can use their money to
gain influence and be a nanunungkulan. In the end, it is the entire
society that is re-created in the Jail - the jail officers and some
moneyed inmates occupy the top rungs of the hierarchy and the
poor inmates occupy the lower rungs.
In First World countries, the jail is a “closed institution.” Government
provides for the basic needs of inmates so that management
does not have to rely on the contributions of enterprising officers
and moneyed inmates. Management, therefore, is free to implement
jail rules and regulations fully. It does not have to tolerate
the presence of a black market and an underground economy.
It also does not have to rely on the contributions of visitors and
volunteers who are able to bring contraband into the jail. In fact,
volunteers and visitors there do not visit the jail often; if they
do, they are limited to the visiting area. Meanwhile, in Quezon
City Jail, visitors are all over the compound—from the plaza to
the cells.
While local inmates are busy eking out a living to meet their
basic needs (e.g., food, clothes, and medicine), their counterparts
in Western countries are preoccupied with dealing with
the emotional and psychological effects of imprisonment. Thus,
“prisonization” has a different effect on these inmates where cases
of suicide and sexual assault are prevalent. In the Philippines,
prisonization drives inmates to sharpen their survival skills.
Inmates go about their daily chores oblivious to the
stench coming from overflowing garbage.
The unregulated entry of money makes gambling a
favorite pastime among inmates.
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