“A person in his right mind would not dare challenge the law and court a jail sentence if he had seen one of these prison cells.

Last week’s prison break in Bacoor, Cavite was an anomaly waiting to happen.

Twenty-three detainees escaped on a dare by two fellow prisoners. They hatched the plan by exchanging jokes about fleeing, so simple that it needn’t need a Don Siegel to craft an Alcatraz story to make it happen.

They just shoved the prison guard, a policewoman at that, inside the packed cell when she was about to fetch another detainee set for transfer to another facility.

There were only four prison guards assigned at that time to the Bacoor City Custodial Center. They were to man about 200 prisoners who packed the cell that could fit just about a quarter of that number.

At one time, this rubbernecker heard of stories about boils becoming near epidemic in an older Bacoor jail facility. The reason was the same—the cell was overcrowded with prisoners.

Prison facilities are supposed to serve as halfway houses for reforming criminals. But in this country, however some officials of the Bureau of Corrections and the Department of Justice would try to serve their mandate to reform errant citizens back into productivity, we see violators of the law just going back to their old ways when set free. Blame their experience as inmates and the lack of opportunities presented to them as free men.

Provincial and city prison facilities are always often crowded with inmates. As it has become normal, they subsist on meager food allowance (barely P50/day). They lack decent quarters, their sleep timed for rotation and without beds, most often denied of entertainment and reading materials to help while away time and on several occasions denied even of access to clean toilet facilities.

A person in his right mind would not dare challenge the law and court a jail sentence if he had seen one of these prison cells.

But the moneyed prisoners could have all the conveniences and luxuries he could buy within correctional facilities.

This rubbernecker was a witness to this when he was invited to a luxurious mansion by a former lawmaker jailed for rape of a minor several eons back. His property was very near the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa.

He was convicted of two counts of statutory rape and six counts of acts of lasciviousness. He was supposed to serve reclusion perpetua. But this corner saw him in his mansion where his security would spirit him back into the NBP for the mandatory headcount.

He was just one of the many privileged prisoners then. He is free now.

Back at the NBP, several high-profile prisoners have also enjoyed privileges beyond the wildest dreams many free men would have.

Some of them have built their own mini palaces within the national prison compound.

Others even had jacuzzis, one had a recording studio and a stage for his rock concerts, vaults for their cash and possession and a television station complete with cameras and crew to keep themselves entertained.

Jene Lloyd Teano Bernabe (re-arrested) and Ariel Villacampa (still on the run), supposed leaders of the Bacoor City jail break, may have been unaware of the high-flying lifestyles of several inmate-bosses at the NBP. They are crime minnows.

Their fellow inmates who did not join the break claimed they only wanted to free themselves from the harsh conditions of their cells. Majority of those who dared to flee have bailable offenses.

The four prison guards were also scarred by the prison break. Four could not match with 200.

What happened in Bacoor can happen in any prison facility in the country. The Philippine National Police, for all its faults and glory, does not have enough force to maintain peace and order and oversee reforms of prisoners the right way.