THE Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday said the lack of money among inmates to pay for their bail bonds is the main reason for the decongestion in the country’s prison facilities, especially those operated by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
DOJ spokesperson Jose Dominic Clavano said the issue will be tackled in next month’s National Jail Decongestion Summit spearheaded by the Justice Sector Coordinating Council.
The JSCC is composed of the Supreme Court, the DOJ, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The DOJ has jurisdiction over the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), which operates the New Bilibid Prison and six other prison and penal farms across the country, while the DILG supervised the BJMP.
“Sa tingin ko po ,‘yung unang-una diyan ‘yung bail dahil po maraming nakakulong sa BJMP.
Pre-conviction po ito ano, wala pang hatol, wala pang judgment, hindi pa nila alam kung convicted ba sila o madidismiss ‘yung kaso nila pero nand’yan sila sa kulungan dahil hindi sila makapagbayad ng piyansa (I think the main reason here is the number of detainees under the BJMP. This is in the pre-conviction level, they have yet to be convicted or their cases dismissed but they are languishing in jail because they could not pay the bail),” Clavano told the “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon” forum.
The JSSC said 70 percent of BJMP jails across the country are suffering a 386 percent congestion rate.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the BuCor prison facilities, including the NBP, has an inmate population of over 50,000 as of January this year, although their total capacity is only around 12,000, or an average congestion rate of 310 percent.
The NBP alone has an occupancy rate of 477 percent and congestion rate is at 377 percent considering that it has a capacity of only 6,435 inmates but as of June this year, it has an inmate population of 30,701.
Clavano said this is the reason why Remulla early this year issued a circular directing state prosecutors to slash in half the recommended bail of an indigent accused of committing crimes, except those charged with crimes punishable by death or reclusion perpetua.
Remulla said many of these individuals are detained for crimes that are in fact bailable but are unable to afford the amount set by the court upon the recommendation of the prosecutor.
“Ito ‘yung sa isa sa mga ginagawa ng DOJ ngayon, pinababa natin ‘yung amount nung bail na kailangan. Either 50 percent ng recommended bail or P10,000, whichever is lower (This is one of the things that the DOJ has done, we reduced the amount of bail. Either we reduce by 50 percent the recommended bail or by P10,000 whichever is lower),” Clavano said.
The Supreme Court had previously ordered the imposition of reduced bail for indigent persons deprived of liberty pending resolution of their cases in courts in an administrative circular issued in 2020.
Article 3 of the Revised Public Attorney’s Office Operations Manual, also provides that where the bail initially fixed by the judge to whom the case is raffled is outside the financial capacity of the accused, the Public Attorneys’ Office may move for its reduction.
Clavano said there is also a need to “reduce the admission in our jails” and to increase the number of detainees released from prison, either through completion of sentence, dismissal of their case, or through pardon or parole.
Clavano said the government should also build up the capacity of BuCor and BJMP jails by adding more facilities.
To alleviate the problem, the DOJ and BuCor had been releasing qualified inmates – the elderly and sick and those who have completed their sentence or have been paroled – since July 2022.
The BuCor have already released 5,602 inmates from November 2022 to August this year.
