Baseline Study on the Philippine Penal Conditions: Nurturing o Human Rights Based Approach to Penal Management •······································································································································································································································· Table 3. Current conditions of Penal Agencies24 Domains of Penal Management Detention centers Prisons Jails Inmate Classification No effective classification, reception and orientation Rudimentary classification by gender and age. No effective classification; reception and orientation not fully developed Classification based on sentence length; inmates classification not followed Inmate housing Crowded single cells; mingling of inmates, no effective segregation; tattooing of inmates Gang housing, use of kubol, patakaran ng selda; tattooing of inmates Gang housing, use of kubol, patakaran ng selda; tattooing of inmates Inmate Programming No inmate programming Multiple, varied, open to all; NGO and inmate initiated; not enough space Multiple, varied, open to all; NGO and inmate initiated; not enough space Documentation and assessment Length of stay not documented; behavior of inmates not documented Rudimentary transmittal of documents from detention centers; participation in programs not fully or properly documented Rudimentary transmittal of documents from detention centers; programs in jails not integrated with programs in prisons; No synergy in the transfer of documents to Board of Pardon and Parole IV. Human Ri2hts Based Approach (HRBA) to Penal Mana2ement HE CURRENT state of the Philippine penal system, as discussed in the previous sections, needs immediate attention. The structural deficiencies have spawned practices that had been pragmatically and morally accepted by most penal officers. This "old penology" has crept into all facets of penal management and informally unified the disparate workings of the detention centers, jails, and prisons. To overcome this systematic and systemic corruption, a holistic and integrated approach to penal management must be introduced. It w ill take the commitment of all the penal agencies to have a sustainable and lasting impact. T Reforms must be introduced in three different levels: structural , organizational, and cultural. Structural reforms refer to improvements in facilities, personnel quantity and quality, and operational resources. Organizational reforms refer to the adoption of the principles of effective penal management. Cultural reforms refer to the introduction of cognitive scripts and narratives that are supportive of human rights based approach to penal management. These reform areas must be tackled simultaneously. Improving o rganizational capacity (for example, training employees on how to run an Anger Management program), w ithout addressing the structural deficiencies (example, without providing facilities for that program) will simply be unsustainable (inmates and personnel will eventually lose interest) . Similarly, even if structural reforms had been introduced (for example. provision of additional personnel, new facilities, and attendant operational resources) but the old cultural ways of doing things are maintained (kubol and VIP system) , the structural improvements will simply aggravate the problem (inmates partitioning the facilitie s). These find ings a re based on Focus Group Discussions, fac ility visits, and other ethnograp hic studies conducted by t he author. 20