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The Philippines has released nearly 10,000 prisoners as the country rushes to halt the spread of the coronavirus in its congested facilities, according to a Supreme Court official.
“The court is very aware of the congested situation in our prisons,” Associate Supreme Court Justice Mario Victor Leonen told reporters on Saturday when he announced that 9,731 inmates had been released.
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The move followed a directive issued by the Supreme Court for lower courts to release those awaiting trial in prison because they were unable to post bail, Leonen told reporters.
Also among those released were prisoners sentenced to prison for six months or less, as well as older prisoners and qualified sick people. They were released between March 17 and April 29, according to press reports.
Physical distancing is almost impossible in the country’s prison system, where cells are sometimes filled to five times their capacity due to inadequate infrastructure and a slow and overburdened judicial system.
Outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, have been reported in some of the Philippines’ overcrowded prisons, affecting both inmates and staff.
Among those who reported outbreaks is the Quezon City Jail in the capital Manila, a facility so crowded that inmates take turns sleeping on the stairs and on the outdoor basketball courts.
The worst outbreaks so far are in two prisons on the central island of Cebu, where two city jails have announced a combined total of 348 infections among more than 8,000 inmates as of Friday.
Currently, more than 450 jails have some 136,000 inmates, according to government data, and health experts warn that the situation is a time bomb.
The recent outbreaks sparked calls by rights groups for the early release of prisoners accused of nonviolent crimes, as well as the sick and elderly.
Overcrowding in prisons has become an even bigger problem since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a 2016 drug offensive that has seen thousands sent to prison.
As of Saturday, the Philippines had recorded 8,928 coronavirus cases and 603 deaths.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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