“The first organized free legal aid program in the country was introduced in the early 1960s by Salvador “Doy” Laurel.

Back in the 19th century, and even way before that, prisons were deliberately designed to punish inmates because life in prison during those trying times was life in subhuman conditions. Prisons of old existed not for the purpose of reforming inmates but to break their resolve to live as human beings. After languishing in detention for decades, those who were eventually released ended up broken in both body and spirit. Indeed, there is truth to the saying that death can be a welcome escape from inhumane incarceration.

The prisons of yester-centuries were dark and dingy, crowded and utterly lacking in sanitation and ventilation. Whatever was fed to the prisoners were unfit for human consumption. Cruel guards dispensed corporal punishment to the detainees indiscriminately. Worse, the newer prisoners often ended up abused and corrupted by the older inmates.

Indeed, there was no hope when one was consumed by the prison system of those awful times. The prison was called a penitentiary and it deserved its label.

Fortunately, the libertarian reasoning which blossomed in the second half of the 20th century underscored the need for prison reform. The libertarian theory posited that the prison system is no longer for the sole purpose of punishment but more so for the rehabilitation of wrongdoers so as to allow them to rejoin the mainstream of civil society as useful citizens. Prison reform introduced the trustee system as well as access to secondary and tertiary education for interested and qualified inmates.

Initial reforms were often carried out by religious organizations and civic-oriented groups.

Young lawyers wishing to contribute to prison reform began to provide free legal assistance to the unjustly detained and the wrongly accused who were too impoverished to afford legal representation in court.

The first organized free legal aid program in the country was introduced in the early 1960s by Salvador “Doy” Laurel who eventually became a statesman. It was only in the second half of the 1980s when the government finally established a public attorneys’ office to assist destitute litigants.

For obvious reasons, a reformed prison system can only exist under a functioning democracy where respect for human rights is underscored. In the 1950s, this could still be said about the prison system in the Philippines. Back then, the national penitentiary and the rest of the prisons in the archipelago could still provide humane detention facilities for inmates. Conditions were uncomfortable but still humane.

Even before World War II, the Philippine government had already anticipated an overcrowding problem in the national penitentiary in Manila so much so that a bigger prison was constructed in Muntinlupa, south of the nation’s capital.

For the duration of the war, however, the new penitentiary became a prison operated by the Japanese military in the Philippines. It became the new national penitentiary after the war and remains so today.

Prisons and municipal jails in the country began to get seriously overcrowded in the 1960s. The problem escalated in 1980s. By the turn of the century, prison facilities became virtual torture chambers.

Today, life in detention can be a fate worse than death on account of unmitigated overcrowding. Inmates take turns just to be able to sleep on the floor. The limited space compels prisoners to stay too close to each other to the point that many of them develop respiratory and skin diseases.

“Prisons of old existed not for the purpose of reforming inmates but to break their resolve to live as human beings.

Sexual assaults, which may lead to sexually transmitted diseases, including the deadly AIDS virus, are rampant due to the presence of overstaying and dominating perverts and sex maniacs in many prisons.

The inhumane conditions in contemporary prisons breed corruption among officials and jail guards. Prisoners and detainees who have financial means and who may not necessarily come from wealthy families, bribe prison officialdom for special treatment. In the end, more prisoners mean more opportunities for corruption in the prison bureaucracy.

Take the case of Sen. Leila de Lima. State prosecutors alleged that when De Lima was still the Secretary of Justice, she received bribe money from drug lords serving time at the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa in exchange for their special treatment. The drug lords were found to live in air-conditioned cells, ate catered food and had access to mobile phones, laptop computers, firearms and cash! Good grief!

Actually, the only viable solution to the present prison problem is to build more prisons.

Although the measure sounds like countenancing the proliferation of criminality in the country, the fact that remains is that an ever-increasing population naturally translates to a marked increase in crime incidents. The complexities associated with life in a world where drug abuse has become a global threat to the rich and the poor and to the young and the old and the escalation of poverty as the national population increases, inevitably dictate that it’s time the government realizes that there are not enough prisons in this country — that is if prisons are supposed to rehabilitate and not just punish.

There should be an end to the needless expenditure of public funds for the expense accounts of politicians, overseas trips of members of Congress and the Supreme Court, the intelligence funds of agencies run by not-so intelligent bureaucrats, the large allowances of Solicitor General Jose Calida, the numerous bodyguards of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the government-paid high-end housing accommodations currently enjoyed by Leni Robredo, the purported vice president of the country. The savings should be enough to finance the construction of badly needed additional prison facilities.

Truth to tell, today’s corrupt legislators ought to invest in more prisons because they just may end up needing humane prison accommodations in the event that the long arm of the law finally catches up with them.

Prison facilities must be improved not soon, but now!