Improving PH jail system

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) had valid reasons to celebrate this week after reporting a significant decrease in the congestion rate of its jails across the country, from 600 percent in 2018 to 367 percent. The 2018 congestion rate was recorded amid former President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war against illegal drugs that swelled the number of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), and made the country’s prison system among the most overcrowded in the world, apart from thousands mercilessly killed.

But the rejoicing will have to be short-lived, because while the congestion rate has markedly come down, it remains unacceptably high, with 126,820 PDLs jammed into 478 BJMP-run facilities designed to fit just a fraction, or some 37,500 individuals. As BJMP spokesperson Jail Chief Inspector Jayrex Bustinera himself described: “[Before, it was] six in a space [meant for one]. Now, with our [reduced] congestion rate, there are [only] three to four [PDLs] in the space [for] one.”

Not exactly something to crow about as cramming so many PDLs in such a small space gives rise to deplorable prison conditions, among them the easy transmission of communicable diseases like tuberculosis and potential violence from in-fighting over personal space. Indeed, the congestion rate of the Philippine prison system is ranked fourth worst in the world, after Congo, Haiti, and Uganda, according to the World Prison Brief of the London-based Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research. The Human Rights Watch meanwhile noted that the combined population in prisons run by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), where convicted felons are kept, and the jails run by the BJMP for those on trial or pre-trial stage, reached as high as 215,000 in November 2019. This is a 26-percent increase from 170,543 in 2016, before the universally condemned illegal drugs campaign filled the country’s jails with thousands of suspects accused of drug use and nonviolent crimes.

The Marcos administration, however, is heading in the right direction with its moves to decongest the overflowing jails, as evidenced by a decline in jail population. The Department of the Interior and Local Government, which supervises the BJMP, and the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees BuCor, should build on this hard-won momentum and take the next step to undertake urgent reforms to ensure that the prison system is not stretched far beyond its capacity. Bustinera said that to spread out the inmates, the BJMP was planning to construct new correctional facilities and repair dilapidated jails across the country with the help of local government units.

More importantly, he said the bureau was harnessing all legal means to hasten the early release of qualified inmates, with BJMP chief Jail Director Allan Iral adding that he had ordered the agency’s paralegal officers to provide 24/7 counseling to help process the inmates’ cases. As of the end of last year, Iral said 77,960 PDLs had already been released through the BJMP’s paralegal services. Bustinera said the agency took its cue from President Marcos, who, early this year, called for the immediate release of qualified inmates languishing in jail because they could not afford lawyers. “They just needed representation to set them free. So let’s continue with that,” Mr. Marcos said.

At the same time, the BJMP vowed faithful compliance with a Supreme Court circular directing the immediate release of PDLs who have completed their sentence, with no lawful reason to be kept inside the packed jails. The DOJ would also do well to strengthen the implementation of the good conduct time allowance so that more qualified prisoners, including the sick and elderly, can be released early in the name of restorative justice and rehabilitation. The department should ensure the judicial use of this privilege that corrupt BuCor personnel had treated as a tool for unlawful gain under its previous management. Recall how several ranking BuCor officials were exposed in 2019 for releasing inmates convicted of heinous crimes who supposedly paid between P50,000 to P1.5 million each to have their good behavior records altered to qualify them for early release.

The government can also take full advantage of the Community Service Act of 2019 that imposes community service instead of jail time for minor offenses such as disturbance of public order, alarm and scandal, and vagrancy. Ultimately, decongesting the BJMP requires the speedy and just disposition of cases that are clogging the dockets as well.

The government has a variety of legal and nonlegal tools at its disposal to further improve the dismal state of the country’s jails and prisons. Inmates and prisoners may not be at the top of government priorities when it comes to communities needing help, but PDLs have rights too, and forcing them to pay their debt to society under inhuman conditions is a clear and continuing violation of their rights.