These photographs by photojournalist Noel Celis who works for AFP reveal
the shocking conditions in an overcrowded prison near Manila in the
Philippines.
Quezon City Jail was built 60 years ago to house 800 prisoners. It now
accommodates 3,800 men, who compete daily for space. Inmates take turns
to sleep on the floor of an open-air basketball court, on the steps of
staircases, underneath beds, and in hammocks made out of old blankets.
Their bodies are packed together like sardines, unable to stretch out.
When it rains conditions become even worse because inmates cannot sleep
in the open air. The government provides a daily budget of about $1.10
for food and 8 pence for medicine per inmate, according to an AFP
report.
There is just one toilet for every 130 men, and buckets of water are
used to flush them. The stench is compounded by rotting rubbish in a
nearby canal.
The Philippine prison system is the third most congested in the world,
according to the University of London's Institute for Criminal Policy
Research.
Conditions in the prison are getting worse as police wage a brutal war
on crime. Security forces have killed hundreds of people and detained
thousands more in just one month as they have followed the orders of
President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said the top priority at the start of
his six-year term is to eliminate drugs in society.
Source: AFP
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