Officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) on Tuesday inaugurated the P-4 million Ubay District Jail (UDJ) located in Barangay Camambugan, Ubay.

According to BJMP regional director J/Sr. Supt. Dennis Rocamora, the facility which is built on a one-hectare lot of the Ubay government has four large jail cells which can accommodate 50 inmates each.

The 200-capacity jail which is already filled with 168 inmates will be the first detention facility in the country to implement a “no-contact policy” between visitors and detainees, said Rocamora.

Even conjugal visits are not allowed in the UDJ, he added.

A meter-wide distance is situated between the visitors and detainees while small screen partitions are also put in place to keep them from reaching each other’s hands.

Rocamora said that the BJMP is expecting opposition against the policy but noted that the measure has been implemented to keep visitors from smuggling contraband into the facility.

This has prompted the jail official to appeal to the public particularly inmates’ visitors to bear with the stringent security measures of the new detention center.

According to Rocamora, the same policy is being imposed in other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.

For his part, Bohol District Jail warden J/Chief Insp. Felipe Montejo who also attended the inauguration along with other BJMP officials said that the opening of the Ubay jail would help decongest the BDJ.

According to Montejo, BDJ detainees who were arrested in areas surrounding the town of Ubay are set to be transferred to the UDJ.

Towns included in the UDJ’s district are Ubay, Alicia, Candijay, Mabini and Anda. (Allen Doydora)