Bill filed creating new department to manage jails
A lawmaker has filed a bill establishing the Department of Corrections and Jail Management (DCJM) to address the perennial problems of congestion and corruption in prison facilities.
Representative Brian Yamsuan of Bicol Saro party-list made the proposal under House Bill 8672, which places the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP), and the Parole and Probation Administration (PPA) under the DCJM.
At present, these various agencies are under the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
"Creating the DCJM will address the inherent flaws in the country’s correctional system, such as the perennial high congestion rate in jails, limited resources, poor coordination among government agencies involved in penal management, and the abuse and corruption that have prevailed in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) and other penal facilities," Yamsuan said.
The proposed DCJM will have four bureaus:
- Bureau of Corrections
- Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which is tasked with exercising supervision and control over all provincial, sub-provincial, city, and municipal jails;
- Bureau of Parole and Probation Administration, which shall assume the functions of the PPA; and
- Bureau of Rehabilitation Services, which shall assume the rehabilitation and reintegration services and programs performed by the former BuCor, BJMP, and PPA.
"By centralizing the oversight and management of prisons and jails and the rehabilitation of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) under a single department, the government can achieve greater efficiency and accountability," Yamsuan said.
Yamsuan said that centralizing the management of the corrections, jail management, and probation systems would also streamline resource allocation and budgeting, ensuring that each penal facility would have adequate funding to support essential services that would contribute to better living conditions and a higher standard of care for PDLs.
"This will [then] foster an environment more conducive to the rehabilitation of PDLs," Yamsuan, who is a former assistant secretary of the DILG, the agency that supervises the BJMP.
HB 8672 also provides for the conversion of national prisons and penal farms in Metro Manila, Palawan, Davao, Leyte, Occidental Mindoro, and Zamboanga into regional correctional facilities.
The provincial and sub-provincial jails will serve as detention facilities for prisoners serving sentences with penalties of imprisonment for three years or less, while the district, city, and municipal jails shall be for detainees who fail to post bail and are awaiting trial or sentencing.
The bill also creates a Transition Monitoring Panel to oversee the expeditious and efficient implementation of the transfer to, and absorption by the DCJM of the personnel, properties, finances, and records of the government agencies that will be placed under its wing.
This panel will be composed of the Justice Secretary as chair and the Secretaries of the DILG and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Chair of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the DJCM Secretary, and the Chairs of the committees of the Senate and House of Representatives on Justice, Human Rights and Public Order and Safety as members.
According to BuCor, the NBP and other penal facilities it manages currently house around 51,500 inmates nationwide.
The total capacity of all these jails, however, is only 12,250 inmates, for a congestion rate of 321%.
Yamsuan made the proposal following a briefing by Dr. Raymund Narag, a recognized international criminology expert and himself a former detainee, before the House justice panel.
In his presentation, Narag told lawmakers about the deplorable conditions inside the NBP and other jails resulting from the overly high congestion rate in these prisons, the lack of personnel and financial resources, and other structural deficits that breed corruption and irregular practices often tolerated by correction officials to enable them and their detainees to survive in poorly maintained facilities. — VBL, GMA Integrated News
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