Humane treatment is for all, including PDLS

Jail congestion in the country has been a problem for a long while. To address this perennial problem, Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo has expressed his belief that adopting a Writ of Kalayaan would help decongest the country’s overcrowded jails.

The country’s top magistrate stressed this during his visit to the Pasay City jail on Oct. 29 as part of his jail visitations in line with the National Correctional Consciousness Week. He likewise bared plans to hold a National Jail Decongestion Summit to determine causes of prolonged detention of persons deprived of liberty (PDLS) and address overcrowding in the country’s prison facilities.

In a report released in June 2023, the Commission on Audit noted that 323 of the jail facilities managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) are considered heavily congested. It said that the congestion rate as of December 2022 was one to 2,639 percent, a situation that does not conform with the United Nations Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the BJMP Manual on Habitat, Water, Sanitation and Kitchen in Jails.

Considered the most overcrowded BJMP facility is the Dasmariñas City Jail-female Dormitory in Regional Office IV-A, with a maximum congestion rate of 2,639 percent. It is followed by San Mateo Municipal Jail-male Dormitory in Rizal, with 2,523 percent congestion rate; and the Muntinlupa City Jail-male Dormitory, with 2,266 percent congestion rate.

In jail facilities managed by the Bureau of Corrections (Bucor), prison congestion rate ranges from 148 percent in Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro to 373 percent in the New Bilibid

Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City as of May 2023.

Under the proposed Writ of Kalayaan, a continuing order similar to the Writ of Kalikasan, those in charge of the custody of PDLS are mandated to comply with the court-sanctioned plan to rectify or improve the substandard or inadequate conditions of prison facilities within a reasonable time and if not met, an order will be issued for the release of the PDLS, either through bail, recognizance or probation, following the order of precedence until the facility has been brought to a humane level.

Bucor Director General Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. assured the SC that “the problems of congestion is now being addressed by the bureau on the basis of the passage of two laws—republic Act No. 10575, the Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013 which provides for the modernization, professionalization, and restructuring of the Bucor, and RA11928 which provides for the establishment of a separate facility for PDLS convicted of heinous crimes.

Catapang likewise said the Bucor “has formulated a five-year Development and Modernization Plan 2023-2028 to build regional prison facilities to decongest and modernize the existing penal institution and accommodate the increasing number of PDLS committed to the agency.”

There is no dispute that the country faces a jail congestion problem.

Thus, we support any move to address this problem. However, it must be done in a manner that conforms with the five pillars of the country’s criminal justice system—law Enforcement Process, Prosecution Process, Judicial Process, Penal or Correctional Process, and The Community.

After all, everyone deserves humane treatment— the free as well as persons deprived of liberty.