With a modest P1.5 billion increase in its budget for 2024, Bicol Saro Partylist Representative Brian Raymund Yamsuan called on the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to focus on the implementation of reintegration programs for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) this year.
Strengthening the BJMP’s reintegration programs will help decongest the overpopulated district, city and municipal jails under the agency’s supervision and provide PDLs with opportunities to become productive individuals after detention, Yamsuan said.
The BJMP budget for 2024 amounts to P23.87 billion, up by almost 7 percent or P1.54 billion from the previous year’s P22.33 billion.
Every year, about 85 percent of the BJMP’s budget is allocated for the custody, safekeeping and rehabilitation of PDLs under its care, said Yamsuan, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Yamsuan said that for 2024, the BJMP’s allocation for this component is P20.26 billion, up by P1.28 billion from P18.98 billion in 2023.
“We urge the BJMP to utilize a significant portion of this P20.26 billion allocation for programs focusing on the reintegration of PDLs into the mainstream of society. Providing targeted, appropriate interventions to PDLs while they are in the custody of the BJMP will help prevent them from becoming recidivists or repeat offenders,” Yamsuan said.
“In turn, lowering the rate of recidivism will help ease overcrowding in BJMP jails,” he added.
The DILG, which supervises over the BJMP, earlier reported that the jail bureau’s congestion rate from January to October 2023 was still high at 348 percent, although an improvement over the 367 percent recorded for the same period in 2022.
According to Yamsuan, the BJMP’s reintegration strategy should be a “whole-of-society” approach that is meant to facilitate the assimilation and adjustment of PDLs into the community.
Yamsuan recalled that last year, DILG Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. broached a similar proposal which involves assisting released PDLs in finding jobs and even temporary housing.
The proposal was part of the DILG’s jail decongestion plans.
Yamsuan said another way to decongest jails while the government is still in the process of sourcing funds to build new detention facilities is through the efficient implementation of the Single Carpeta Project System (SCPS)—a nationwide comprehensive case monitoring and information system that tracks the status and progress of the cases of PDLs from one agency to another.
The SCPS is under the Parole and Probation Administration (PPA) of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and involves two other agencies—the BJMP, through its National Inmate Monitoring System. and the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP) through its Pardons and Parole Information System.
For 2024, Yamsuan noted that the BJMP’s budget for the SCPS rose to P28.9 million from P25.95 million in 2023 as the government continues to finetune its full implementation and rollout nationwide.
While the SCPS is a laudable project, Yamsuan said the more sustainable and long-term solution to jail congestion and improving the welfare of PDLs is to unify the fragmented correctional system, as proposed under his measure—House Bill 8672—which aims to create a Department of Corrections and Jail Management (DCJM).
Yamsuan said unifying the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), which is currently under the DOJ; the BJMP of the DILG; the correctional and jail services of the provincial governments; the BPP; and the PPA under a single agency will ensure the seamless coordination among the different agencies involved in the administration of justice and the management and care of PDLs.
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