(From AFP)
Images of hellish conditions at an overcrowded Philippines jail triggered calls Thursday from lawmakers and rights groups for swift reforms to the penal system which is under strain from an anti-drugs crackdown.
AFP photographs of the Quezon City Jail, where thousands of inmates are forced to sleep on stairs or on cracked cement floors in unimaginable squalor, highlighted the crisis which is worsening under President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on crime.
“It’s an image straight out of Dante’s ‘Purgatory’,” Human Rights Watch said, referring to the 13th century Italian writer’s description of the realm where souls await judgement.
“Hundreds of half-naked men sprawled on the pavement in the sweltering heat, desperately trying to sleep amid the cramped chaos… It’s an actual snapshot of horrific overcrowding in the Philippines’ jails.” Read More