Editorial: Just Deserts

ONE of my strongest motivations for leading a law- abiding life was the quality, or lack of it, of prison food. When I was preparing for the priesthood many pounds and locks of hair ago, my seminary classmates and I used to regularly visit Lex, the ominously named provincial jail of Bulacan, as part of our apostolate. We interacted with the detainees, talked a little about Jesus and a lot about themselves and their loved ones, and spent the rest of the visit playing basketball with them. We believed that our visit allowed them to have a casual conversation with someone from outside the prison walls so that they would feel like ordinary human beings instead of numbers on a list and wards under supervision by the State.

One afternoon, as we were preparing to leave, a delivery of the ingredients for that evening’s dinner was taking place. I noticed one big plastic bag of pechay/pak choi, but instead of the green leafy parts of it, only the tougher white stems, most of them still with some roots protruding, were in the bag. They were obviously the discarded parts, perhaps from a big restaurant’s kitchen, and ‘donated’ to the jail.

Naively, I asked the one receiving the ingredients what he intended to do with them and his curt reply was “Lulutuin siempre; buti nga at may gulay kami ngayon.” (We will cook them of course; we’re fortunate that we have veggies for tonight.)

The question of what to do with those who violate norms, inflict harm, and cause damages has been central to the development of moral philosophy and criminal justice. What just deserts should offenders get for their transgressions against individuals or society itself has defined various approaches to penology from the earliest days of human civilization. Surviving legal codes from Mesopotamia such as those from Ur- Nammu and Hammurabi outlined various crimes and their corresponding punishments. Book 18 of Homer's Iliad, in describing the design of Achilles' armor, gave glimpses of penal practices in ancient Greece. The epic Mahabharata and the legal code Manusmriti provided insights into the social and moral norms of ancient Indian culture.

There are basically four approaches to crime and punishment in current penology. First is retributive justice which focuses on exacting punishments that are proportional to the criminals' actions. Lex talionis, or "an eye for an eye" ensures fairness through strict proportionality. Chopping off an arm for thievery or capital punishment for murder are fine examples of the retributive approach.

Second is restorative justice, which focuses on repairing the harm caused by crime through restitution. By emphasizing accountability and rebuilding relationships between offenders and victims, future harm is prevented and the community is protected. The payment of blood money to the family of a homicide victim is one example of restorative justice.

The third approach is the theory of deterrence. By intimating what punishments are reserved for criminal behavior, society is giving would-be offenders pause, allowing them to weigh the consequences of their actions before they actually commit them. It must be noted, however, that deterrence requires effective policing and a high probability of arrest and conviction for it to work.

The fourth approach is rehabilitation, which presupposes an individual's capacity to change as a result of interventions that address the root causes of criminal behavior. Rehabilitation prevents future crimes by helping offenders become useful members of society through education, work training, counseling and religious guidance. It takes into account societal factors such as drug dependency or poverty as causes of criminality and introduces programs that address those specific issues.

As is often the case, a state may use any or a combination of these approaches in preventing criminality. A common denominator among the four is incapacitation by which society seeks to protect itself by removing the offender from the rest of the population and restricting his or her freedom. This is achieved through various modes such as house arrest, imprisonment, and, in extreme cases, execution. However, the jury is still out debating the effectiveness of incapacitation, particularly imprisonment, in controlling criminality. In many cases, those imprisoned and placed in close proximity day in and day out with hardened criminals may end up upgrading their criminal enterprise instead of getting rehabilitated. Outside the prison's walls, other offenders can easily take the place of those imprisoned, taking advantage of the vacancy afforded by the former's incarceration.

Conditions in any Philippine prison should be enough of a deterrence for committing crimes. Inadequate ventilation, gross overcrowding, lack of potable water, poor food quality, poor sanitations, and lack of access to medical care are just some of the observations reported by entities such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Committee of the Red Cross. One UNODC report cited Manila City Jail prisoners having to sleep on their sides and on the concrete floor in neat rows of maybe 200 from one end of a dormitory to the other just to accommodate everyone, as the jail is overcrowded by whopping 168 per cent. A 2024 report ranked the Philippines alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Uganda in terms of prison congestion. Susmaryosep, as the late great Max Soliven would say.

In 2023, the Philippines joined over 50 other states in the Group of Friends of the Nelson Mandela Rules which aims to promote humane conditions of imprisonment through the practical application of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. By doing so, the Philippines has committed to undertaking prison and penal reform such as by resolving cases quickly to reduce the number of pre-trial detainees, offering better health and education facilities, preventing inhumane treatments in enforcing discipline, and improving record- keeping to aide early release of those who qualify.

The way we treat persons deprived of liberty says a lot about the soul of our nation. It also has practical implications on our efforts to make our communities safer, as what happens to people during their imprisonment and following their release will affect the rise or fall of criminality. The road to judicial and penal reforms is long and hard and it behooves all of us to do what we can to hasten the journey and assist those who traverse that path. Because we Rotarians are People of Action. And because Together, We Transform.