There is now a plan to build island prisons for those convicted and meted life sentences for heinous crimes.
Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said the Department of Justice is eyeing to build an island prison in Sablayan, Mindoro Island, in the same parcel of land as the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm, as well as several more island prisons in the properties they have available in Leyte and Zamboanga.
Why just heinous crimes convicts? Why not include the worst of the worst when it comes to drug convictions?
Many of our jails are actually sanctuaries for criminal enterprises. This is because of two things; first some privileged inmates can move contraband freely into and out of jail, second, these same privileged inmates maintain some form of communication with the outside world, allowing them to run their drug empire.
Establishing an island prison may stop some of the smuggling as well as isolate drug lords from their underlings who continue to run their operations outside the jail.
It will also deter escape attempts, or at least make them very difficult.
All that aside, we submit that having such a kind of jail will also have its disadvantages. For one, it will make visiting inmates of such jails extremely difficult, and even the worst of the worst still have family who love them. For some of the most hardened criminals family may even be the only thing keeping them alive and sane.
Take this away from them and you take everything away from them. Prisoners who no longer have anything to live for are the type to be feared most.
Another disadvantage is the cost of running such a jail. Let’s take the most famous island prison in the world as an example. Alcatraz Prison was built in 1934 in an island in San Francisco Bay in California. It was purposely located there so the freezing waters, strong current, and sharks that swam about the bay would make escape difficult if not impossible.
Except for three inmates who allegedly escaped in 1962 --we say allegedly escaped because until now their final fates are still undetermined-- no one else was able to successfully escape the jail.
However, Alcatraz was finally closed in 1963, not because of the allegedly successful escape but because it had become too costly to maintain.
Considering how we always stuff our jails to the maximum and well beyond that, the cost of maintaining such jail may soon rise beyond expectations.
Before the DOJ embarks on such a project, it must be sure that it is ready to deal with the consequences and shoulder the costs of such an endeavor.