PRISONERS at the Davao City Jail have exceeded Davao City Jail's capacity of 300 by 1,006 percent with a current total of 3,097 resulting to overcrowding, an official said.
Davao City Jail Chief Warden Grace said majority of those detained here are illegal drug offenders at around 70 percent or 2,321.
The large number of illegal drug offenders was due to the efforts of law enforcers under President Rodrigo Duterte's directive on serious crackdown against illegal drugs.
"Naglobo talaga ang ating population. Unang-una ang ating drug-related cases is 70 percent so kung wala ang drug-related only 30 percent will be left in jail," Taculin said.
They are implementing their congestion programs including fast tracking the slow judicial process of the inmates and identifying those who are overstaying and still languishing inside the jail despite completing their sentence.
"We have a paralegal team for the program who will assist in identifying those prisoners who have already served their sentence," she added.
If they find prisoners eligible to be released, they will immediately write a letter to the judges to process the documents, thus, it somehow lessened the population.
Taculin is optimistic that with the construction of an eight-hectare new jail facility in Barangay Wangan, Calinan District, the congestion problem will be lessened as some inmates will be transferred there while only the sickly and high-risk prisoners will be left in the city jail annex.