In this life long work, I investigated what ails Philippine corrections. Specifically, I investigated how overcrowding, insufficiency of personnel, and inadequacy of resources impinge on correctional management. I documented the intricate coping mechanisms utilized by persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and correctional officers in order to overcome these deficiencies. In particular, I captured how the kubol, mayores, VIP and pangkat systems supplement and supplant official correctional standards and practices. I celebrated the strengths of this unique Filipino system of correctional governance, which is rooted in bayanihan and damayan. However, I also cringed against and lamented the excesses of this system when left unchecked, such as the proliferation of drug trade and gang violence inside prisons. But more than lamenting the sorry state of the correctional system, I also outlined mechanisms on how to develop and implement a human rights based approach to effective correctional management. I discussed how classification and risk assessments, programming, housing placement, and documentation and assessment of PDL behaviors contribute to an integrated correctional governance. Though this book is centered in the New Biibid Prisons of the Bureau of Corrections, the dynamics and practices I uncovered therein can be applied to jails managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Provincial Governments. Prison Superintendents and Jail Wardens can use this book to effect wide-ranging reforms in their local facilities. This book also discusses how the police, judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and parole and probation officers affect correctional management. Errors in arrests, delays in judicial proceedings, and inefficiencies in releases all impinge on the social and cultural life inside jails and prisons. I offer this book to all those who dream of a better criminal justice system in the Philippines. This book is published by the University of the Philippines College of Law. To God Be All the Glory!!!
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