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.
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.
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