UNITED IN IMPROVING THE JAIL. Mayor Marop Ampatuan (seated center) of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao makes the “fist bump” with the participants of the jail officers' orientation for the welfare and development of inmates at the town’s district jail on Saturday (Nov. 7, 2020). Ampatuan urged the jail officers to make the prison a more humane and ideal place for reforming persons deprived of liberty. (Photo courtesy of BJMP - Shariff Aguak)
COTABATO CITY – Mayor Marop Ampatuan of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao has ordered the town’s jail authorities to make the district jail clean, environment friendly, and conducive to reforming persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
Ampatuan made the challenge to Jail Inspector Roy M. Sumauang and Senior Jail Officer (JO) 2 Tarhata Ampatuan-Sumael during the closing program of the Jail Officer 1 Orientation for the welfare and development of inmates at the Shariff Aguak District Jail compound on Saturday.
“Make the jail facility a stepping stone for PDL(s) to reform and live normal lives once they are out and reintegrated into the society,” he told the jail officials.
Ampatuan also lauded the 20 JO1 completers and pledged to improve the Shariff Aguak District Jail, which was established during the stint of the late governor Datu Andal S. Ampatuan Sr. to address the increasing number of lawbreakers in the town.
Before the program, local jail officials toured the mayor and his company on the premises of the 2,000-square-meter facility.
The quick tour allowed Ampatuan to see what the local government could provide to improve the jail to make it more humane for inmates.
Ampatuan, an engineer by profession, said he was confident that the dynamic Maguindanao Governor Bai Mariam L. Sangki-Mangudadatu would provide additional funds and logistics for the betterment of the district jail, in coordination with the region’s Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
Only recently, Sangki-Mangudadatu funded the rehabilitation of the district jail with an adjacent facility for inmates who would contract the coronavirus disease 2019.
The jail has some 100 inmates, mostly illegal drug offenders, according to Anwar Kuit Emblawa, the town’s secretary to the mayor. (PNA)
