Baseline Study on the Philippine Penal Conditions: Nurturing a Human Rights Based Approach to Penal Management • ······································································································································································································································· a. The present state of the Philippine Penal agencies Having described t he subtle differences between "detention centers", "j ail s" and "prisons", the next step is to develop an understanding of the current realities of the Philippine penal agencies. In this section, a broad description of penal facilities w ill be provided, where common conditions and practices are delineated. While the extent of the conditions and practices w ill vary from one penal facility to another, these conditions and traits are more likely to be found in most p enal facilities in the country, be it a detention center, jail, or prison. Additionally, given that penal work is intertwined, a description of the current relationships between the different agencies is provided. For example, Detention Centers managed and run by the PNP, NBI and PDEA has a direct impact on how BJMP Jail s and Provincial Jails are managed, and t he BJMP Jail and Provincial Jail practices also affect how BuCor Prisons are administered. Specifically, this section provides a description of how dysfunctions in one facility will be transferred and inherited by other agencies. b. Common Conditions and Traits of Penal Facilities II· ... . .. .... ... ............. . O ne of the common conditions that afflict most penal facilities is the lack of facilities and space, qual ity personnel, and operational Focus group discussion: resources. W hi le the level of deficiency varies from agency to agency How do we challenge (BuCor versus BJMP and Prov incia l Jails), location of the facility (urban and resolve common versus rural; first class municipality versus third class municipality) and arguments and issues the type of inmates (det ained versus convict ed; maximum security on the lack offacilities, versus minimum security), most of the agencies have failed to prov ide and space, quality the basic minimum standards for the t reatment o f PDLs. For example, ofpersonnel and the BuCor currently has a total of 41 ,000 inmates under its care, but the ho lding capacity of all its facilities is slated only for 18,000 inmates. 9 The operational resources in most overcrowded facility managed by the BuCor is the Leyte Regional detention facilities? Prison, which has a 1256 total number of inmates but w ith rated bed capacity of 486 inmates.10 As previously mentioned, t he New Bilibid Prison, w ith a combined inmate population of 22,000 inmates, is the biggest mega-prison complex in t he w orld. 11 The steady growth of the inmate population has not been matched by any new prison construction resulting to acute cell overcrowding.12 While the BuCor facilit ies are overcrowded in terms of cell space, BuCor faci lities, at least, have been endowed w ith vast tracts of lands and, and have yard space for inmates to move around. Thus, BuCor prisons have relatively ample yard space for recreation, livelihood, and inmate programming. T he same cannot be said of the BJMP facilities w hich are mostly characterized by overcrowded cell space and cramped yard space. Most of the BJMP facilities were inherited from the Philippine Constabularylntegrated National Police (PC-INP) and were originally designed as Police Temporary Detention Cells. Jn terms of national statistics, the BJMP currently has a to tal population of 96,000 inmates and continues to grow, but the ideal cell capacity o f all BJ M P jail faci lities combined is only good for 19,000 inmates, thus registering a congestion rate of 408% .13 The most overcrowded jail managed by the BJMP is the Malolos u"' 12 13 12 BuCor Annual Report, 2015. This is based on cell occupancy rate. This condition was made worse by the fire that raged the Maximum Facility of the Leyte Regional Prison in October 8, 2015. Mega-prisons are prisons with population of more than a thousand inmates. In some j urisdictions, they are also called "Titan Prisons· or "Super Jails". The last prison to be constructed is the Leyte Regional Prison which was constructed in 1973. BJMP Annual Report, 2015.