De Lima files bill seeking

unified corrections and jail

systems
Published July 21, 2018 11:02am

Detained opposition senator Leila de Lima has filed a measure seeking to put
the management of all the country’s jails and prisons under one agency that
will provide better rehabilitation programs for all detainees and prisoners.

In a statement on Saturday, De Lima said Senate Bill (SB) 1879 took

inspiration from the advocacy of Nelson Mandela, who had been a political
detainee, on the occasion of the South African leader's 100th birth
anniversary.

“On the 510th day of my unjust detention as a prisoner of conscience of the

[Rodrigo] Duterte administration, during the Nelson Mandela Day and
Centenary, I am filing this bill to help reform the corrections and jail
management system in the Philippines,” she said.

Last July 18, the world celebrated the Mandela Day, and on his 100th birth
anniversary. He is best remembered as the head of the anti-apartheid
movement, the first President of a free South Africa, and one of the world’s
greatest moral and political leaders.

De Lima pointed out that the present conditions of the country’s jails and
prisons violate not only the 1987 Constitution but also the United Nations
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the
“Nelson Mandela Rules.”

According to her, the perennial congestion problem of the country’s prisons

and jails have resulted in other related problems, such as jail disturbances,
escapes, substandard living and working conditions, poor sanitation, and
infectious diseases.
Also, the former justice secretary said the highly fragmented corrections and
jail management system has resulted in the lack of integrative and uniform
development programs on correctional services and jail management.

“This measure will help address the fragmented set-up of the Philippine
corrections and jail system, the overcrowding of our prisons and jails, the lack
of uniformity of standards in the treatment of all persons deprived of liberty,
among others. ”

At present, the prisons and penal farms are under the Bureau of Corrections –
Department of Justice (BuCor-DOJ), while the provincial jails are under the
provincial governments and the district, city and municipal jails under the
Bureau of Jail Management and Penology of the Department of the Interior
and Local Government (BJMP-DILG).

Such as setup, she added, “Is not conducive to efficiency, effective

management and an integrative and uniform development of programs on
correctional services and jail management.”

Under SB 1879, a National Commission on Corrections and Jail Management

(NCCJM) shall be created to carry out a system integrating the correctional
and jail services provided by BuCor-DOJ, BJMP-DILG, and the provincial
governments.

Once approved into law, the BuCor under DOJ and BJMP under DILG shall be
effectively abolished, along with the correctional and jail services being
administered and maintained by the respective provincial governments.

“We are advocating for the integration of all jails and prisons under one central
authority, the expansion and regionalization of facilities, the enhanced
professionalization of government personnel, and, most importantly, the
promotion and protection of the fundamental rights and legitimate interests of
all persons deprived of liberty,” she added. —LBG, GMA News