Press Release
December 17, 2019

Senate approves prison farm for heinous crime inmates

ISOLATING hardened criminals from the rest of persons deprived of their liberties (PDLs) is the best disciplinary sanction, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said as the Senate approved on final reading the bill seeking the creation of a separate facility for heinous crime inmates.

Sotto said: "It is about time that we let these hardened criminals feel the pain of isolation, the pain of being alone. This will also put a stop from these criminals from operating even behind bars."

Sotto noted that when death is imposed on criminals convicted of heinous crimes, it is their loved ones who suffer and feel the pain. "When these people die, their families are the ones who suffer. This should not be case. They should also be made to suffer from the crimes they have committed," he said.

Likewise, the Senate President said heinous crimes offenders should be deprived of the possibility, no matter how small, to continue their evil acts and influence inmates who have committed lesser crimes.

Senate President Sotto has filed a bill seeking the re-imposition of the death penalty for high-level drug traffickers.

The Sotto bill was used as the working draft for committee discussions for Senate Bill No. 1055 which the Senate approved on third and final reading on Monday.

SBN 1055 is a consolidated measure co-authored by Sotto and Senators Richard Gordon and Juan Miguel Zubiri proposing the establishment of a separate jail facility for criminals sentenced to life imprisonment for heinous crimes.

The proposed penitentiary shall be put up preferably within a military establishment or in an island separate from the mainland. The location should be in a secured and remote area to cut the inmates' contact from the outside world.

Three heinous crimes facilities will be put up in the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The facilities shall have modern surveillance cameras, high-tech information and security system capable of 24/7 monitoring of prisoners, and complicated security features on locks, doors, and perimeters.

Hardened criminals will be moved to the facility within a period of 30 days after the completion of the construction of the penitentiary.

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