Davao’s new jailhouse gives hope to women behind bars

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — “The place looks very nice, it doesn’t feel like a jail at all," Colin Davies, deputy representative of the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (Unicef), observed in a brief visit early this month to the Ray of Hope Village, the newest women’s facility of Ma-a city jail. Landscaped and painted in bright pastels, the duplexes that make up the new women’s facility of the Ma-a city jail resemble a village that reminds inmates of home. Aptly called the Ray of Hope Village because it seeks to give hope to women behind bars, the new facility features 10 duplexes, five of which are already finished; a multipurpose hall, a nursing room and other amenities for children and mothers sprawled over the 5,400 sq. meter area of what used to be an idle lot inside the jail compound. Windows are made of steel grills, to keep the ambiance of a home, according to Jail Chief Insp. Ferdinand Pontillo, officer-in-charge of the Davao city jail. He said building a village inside the jail is a concept of freeing inmates long before they are released. “By making this a better place, the women may become better people in society. When they meet their children, they’ll be a lot happier and I hope that once they go out, they will not come back anymore," Collins said. In a recent city peace and order meeting, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he will ensure that the facility will feature a room for nursing mothers and other amenities for children. “The law says, you cannot deprive a child below seven years old of a mother, so, even if the mothers are in prison, children should be provided with facilities when they visit," he said. Pontillo said the idea for the P6 million facility started way back in 1999 to 2000, when concerns over minors in jail had prompted the Unicef to launch a series of meetings and consultations with jail officials. For years, Unicef has been pushing for a separate detention cell for minors but it was only after Republic Act 9044 or the Juvenile Justice Act that minors inside the city jail have been finally turned over to the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Now, that tiny seed of awareness for the rights of minors have been extended to include women. Pontillo said the women’s facility, which is now being ran by a woman warden, houses over a hundred women inmates. The facility will be completed in the upcoming Kadayawan festivities in August, said Antonio Binatero, project director of Gawad Kalinga, who has been taking care of the project’s building, architecture and design. He said that the women’s facility at the Davao city jail is the first jail facility built by Gawad Kalinga, a civic group known for its innovative housing projects for the poor in different parts of the country. With the labor counterpart provided by the inmates of the city jail, donations of civic groups and institutions such as the NCCC Cares, the Zonta Club, DCWD and the city government itself make the building of the facility possible. Ofelia P. Lapas, jail deputy for operations, also said the lack of facilities and existing jail policies do not yet allow nursing mothers to nurse their babies in jail. The babies are sent home after birth. Lapas said that after a jail riot that occurred in Manila years ago, the Maa city jail has stopped allowing kids to stay with their mothers inside the jail for a long time to prevent accidents. At least, 95 per cent of women behind bars are mothers, she said. Among the women inmates, Gina Talingting, 42, smiles as she takes a whiff of fresh air in the veranda of one of the newly built duplexes. It was about 3:30 p.m., and women in pink t-shirts are coming out of the other duplexes to spend an afternoon gardening. “Unlike before, where we were housed inside congested, windowless rooms, we can now have a chance to look around and move around," she confides. She said she is happy that they were moved out of the old facility to this new village. The houses serve as their sleeping quarters at night and a workroom in the daytime. “It is where the women pray, talk to each other, work, learn new things, or sing," said Talingting. The old place– a three-room structure at the back of the men’s quarters–used to be so congested that 37 women had to share one toilet, and one room held as many as 67 inmates, Pontillo said. Talingting, who spent the last three years in the old facility, said a fight among the inmates could erupt at the slightest cause because of the poor living condition there. “It was so crowded, there was hardly space to move around," she said. They used to live and sleep on rickety wooden bunk beds, two persons in each bed. Some even had to sleep on the floor. Here, she said, they even have water for washing. Each duplex can house only 10 people. After the wake up call at 5:30 in the morning and the roll call, they go about washing their clothes at the faucet at the back or taking a bath. Each house has a built in toilet and bath and begins to feel like home, she says. - Germelina Lacorte/davaotoday.com