What has been done:
From the period of 17 October to 20 November 2020, our Community Bail Bond Program continued as the entire corrections community took time to commemorate the annual National Correctional Consciousness Week/Prison Awareness Week (NACOCOW-PAW) held at the end of October.
PRESO, Inc. joined the festivities through the conduct of an inter-jail song composition contest. One of the entries from Manila City Jail Male Dorm entitled “Ang Panalangin” bested all entries from the participating jail facilities. Prizes were given to all the winning entries as well as all the participants.
We continued to engage with other stakeholders in the criminal justice system. The Parole and Probation Administration (PPA) became our newest partner after we conducted an exploratory meeting. The discussion bore fruit as we hope to help the PPA in addressing their probation application backlog.
We also successfully completed the third batch of the webinar course entitled “Understanding Criminogenic Risk Factors: Implications for Correctional Services and After Care Programs in the Philippine Context”. More and more are being made aware of the theories behind a human rights-based approach to effective correctional management.
Prof. Raymund E. Narag, PhD, our Chief Consultant, also conducted a training webinar on Peer & Family Criminogenic Risk Intervention for the Manila City Jail Male Dorm as part of their pilot implementation of the Classification, Risk Assessment and Case Management Program (CRACMP).
Our Program Field Officers accompanied several of our Participants in their respective court hearings since release. This, as well as our weekly monitoring and home visits, form part of our post-release interventions to ensure reintegration into their respective communities.
Our partners from El Proveedores Foundation also continued providing services through capital loan assistance, medical and education support for CBB participants and their family members.
Our partners from IDEALS also continued providing paralegal support services. Through their help we were also able to issue position papers on several issues delaying the release of bailable and meritorious cases.
PRESO Inc. also continues its advocacy against the re-imposition of the death penalty through our membership in the Coalition Against Death Penalty (CADP). The Coalition initiated a new campaign this month through the release of a short film entitled “Panibagong Pagkakataon”.
The recent super typhoon Ulysses also brought its wrath to several jail facilities. We continue to coordinate and assist other NGO’s and generous individuals willing to help in the recovery efforts.
As of November 20, there have been 153 individuals referred to our program coming from 6 jail facilities, 2 police stations and 3 youth centers of whom, 81 had been interviewed. Of the interviewed, 17 had been successfully bailed out, 9 had their cases dismissed, 2 had served sentence, 2 was successfully referred to probation, and 2 were released on recognizance. The rest are still in jail hoping to be granted early release. Of the 32 released, 29 had been reintegrated to their respective families and communities.
Through our CBB program, the government has now saved PhP 202.860.00. This is computed by adding the amount budgeted per day (PhP70 for food) multiplied by the number of days since the day of the release from jail of every individual Participant. These savings will increase as days go by and as long as their cases are not terminated. For those whose cases are dismissed, served early or whose probation was approved, we expect a savings of least 60 days of non-incarceration.
Additionally, on top of the food savings by the government, these individuals are now back to the community and actively engaged in their livelihood- hence contributing to the economy.
More importantly, we reduced jail crowding which is one of the major issues that is faced by our correctional facilities, especially in the time of the COVID19 pandemic.
Finally, we minimized their exposure to the criminogenic jail environment leading to better reentry to the society as responsible members.
But this is just the beginning. We envision that more PDLs and CICLs would be referred to our program soon and that they will be restored to their liberties, their dignity regained and that their lives are eventually rebuilt. We as a community have a significant role in all these. In the long run, support for our prisons and prisoners as a whole would benefit all of society in terms of lower rates of recidivism and increased sense of public safety.
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