Institutional

Based
Corrections
Prepared by:
Maria Jellica P. Bartolano
 CHAPTER I
A Global View on Prison
Administration
 Every prison in the world is a place of
repentance, just like the National Penitentiary of
the Philippines now known as the New Bilibid
Prison. As per Dr. Armando F. Grata, in his study
Transcending Humanity in the New Bilibid Prison
Spirituality; A Phenomenological Study, he stated
that “a penitentiary is a place where, those who
violated the social prescriptions of conduct of
society are made to atone for their acts,
commonly described from the institutional point of
view as crime. This is a place where supposedly
an offender is seen suffering from physical
hardships and isolation.
 Accordingly, from the perspective of the prison
institution and free society, which requires and
entails a whole set of values, a whole way of
looking at people, at human relationships, at the
relationship of the individual to the state, about
which there has to be some decent level of
consensus (Branden, 1996), prison may be viewed
in two ways. First the Auburn model, which is
about punishing criminals, otherwise known as the
Retributive Justice. On the other side is the more
humane way of the Eastern State model, which is
“about having people in a controlled setting and
using the space in a humane way”, otherwise
known as the Restorative Approach.
 The establishment of a prison at Auburn, New York,
USA in 1816 led to a new prison model and regime,
designed to keep convicts separate and unable to
communicate with each other even as they were forced
to labor as penal slaves. “Industry, obedience, and
silence” were the guiding principles of the new system.
This model provides a “tiny individual cells and
workshops as well a rigid system of enforced silence
and harsh punishments”. Accordingly, “movement to
and from the workshops was performed in a regimented
manner, known as the lockstep, which called for
prisoners to watch in a military style human chain.
Lockstep
 While Eastern State Model believes that
crime is the result of environment and that
solitude will make the criminal regretful and
penitent, hence penitentiary. This would not only
punish, but move the criminal toward spiritual
reflection and change. In its early forms, inmates
were hooded whenever they were outside of their
cells to prevent distraction, knowledge of the
building and all interaction. This correctional
theory would be known as the Pennsylvania
System.
Eastern State Model
 The emerging paradigm of correction, which is to
restore the offender to his obligation as a “law-abiding”
citizen has gained popularity both in theory and practice.
Prisons of today are operated. Manned and built with the
purpose of following the Theory of Restorative Justice.
Restorative Justice is a way of thinking about what is
best for the many connections among crime victims,
their offenders and the criminal justice process.
Restorative Justice advocates suggest that conventional
assumptions about these connections may be wrong:
that victims should be at the center rather than excluded
from the process, that victims and offenders are not
natural enemies,
that victims are not primarily retributive in their
view of justice, that prison is not necessarily the
best way to prevent repeat crime. Restorative
Justice, at least in principle, seeks ways for
victims and offenders to cooperate’ in preventing
future crime and repairing past harms.

Apparently, the Restorative Prison System of

today is a manifestation of the level of
advancement of human societies. Every facet of
man’s institutional system indeed is a reflection of
the what (condition) and the hoe (operation) of
our government establishments.
 The prison, which is vital cog in the justice system, is
believably a good reflection of how well a society defines
itself. On the other hand, it can assert a paradigm of
social segregation based on the old model of penology,
which rely heavily on punishment, or it can operate from
an inclusive social milieu mindful of those who it
perceives as transgressors and those that it deems as
toeing the social line of its gals and the means of
achieving them. The condition of prisons will therefore
be in the core of any discourse on inmate rehabilitation
and correction. Rehabilitation is used and understood
from the Christian approach to “Prisoner Rehabilitation
Program”.
 Which uses; prayer and spiritual transformation so
that the prisoners who have been released will not have
tendency to be brought back again.” Prisons that “are
into the faith-based rehabilitation program want the
inmates to explore their faith more deeply, and
encourage them to indulge in daily prayer and worship.”
Correction on the other hand is a “function typically
carried out by government agencies and involving the
punishment, treatment, and supervision of persons who
have been convicted of crimes.”
By its conditions, the prisons physical facility is at the
front line of scrutiny whether such facility is or will be
responsive to the demand of rehabilitation.
 As a front line response, the facility and its attendant
physical structures are, as the mission of prisons would
go, fastened with equally vital functions in the areas of
prison administration such as education, skills training,
moral regeneration, value reformation and spiritual
growth. These areas are instrumental and as necessary
for the reformation or correction of the convict.
These correction procedures are institutionally placed
upon the burdened shoulders of the prison official. The
corrections agency is under a very high social
expectation to produce a good citizen upon release.
 As an agent of the law, the correction officer does not
only have a simple responsibility of ensuring order in
the facility, but should, under the new paradigm, see to it
that the released convict is a reformed person.
Under whatever prevailing circumstance the
correctional institution will be, inmates will survive, be
formed, or become recidivists in the process. These are
various types of results that are produced from the
different circumstances that prevail upon the prisoners
from within them and from outside of them, but all within
the confines of the penitentiary. The many interventions
that happen within the walls of the prison are partly
responsible for the kind of inmates that are released or
even the ones that stay for good.
 Prisons: Antiquity to Modernity
The history of prisons could be as old as the human
history. The need of man to come up with an exacting
punishment has caused the evolution of prisons. The
Catholic Encyclopedia gives a detailed narration of the
history of prisons. Accordingly, many juris consults and
religious scholars “include imprisonment among the
number of penalties recognized in Hebrew legislation”
It is believed that during the time of Nebuchadnezzar,
the King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, there were at
least three prisons in Jerusalem. On about this period, in
the Greek City of Athens, imprisonment “was imposed as
a penalty”. In fact, prisoners were “deprived of freedom
of movement by having their feet attached to wooden
blocks”.
In Rome, prisoners were enclosed in an upper chamber
“lighted only by narrow loopholes, and, if they were
condemned to death, they were thrown into the dungeon
through an opening its roof”, for strangulation, Just like
the some of today’s prisons, prisons then serve to be the
punishment places where offenders either suffer their
sentence or life or for a specific period of time,
depending on the gravity of their offense. Again, just like
today’s prison however, the Roman penal system
evolved into a more considerate and humane type of
system, considering that it has accepted and embraced
the theory that imprisonment is “not much of a penalty”,
but “a means of supervising culprits”. On this idea, the
penal system was transformed radically through the
abolition of “perpetual imprisonment”.
In today’s prison, particularly in the Philippines , the idea
is similar to life imprisonment, as differentiated from the
concept of Reclusion Perpetua (Revised Penal Code of
the Philippines), a penalty that imposes a jail term for
Forty (40) years; although life terms are still imposed
under special laws. The care of the jails, up to the
middle of the third century, was included among the
duties of the triumviri capitale, while in “the provinces a
more regular administration entirely under military
control was being instituted”. Triumviri Capitale is a
prison building designated by law, or used by the sheriff,
for the confinement, or detention of those whose
persons are judicially ordered to be kept in custody. But
in cases of necessity, the sheriff may make his own
house, or any other place, a prison.
Unlike in today’s prisons however, the accused
then were not separated from those that were
already convicted, “nor were the sexes kept apart
through there are instances of solitary
imprisonment”.
 The Influence of the Roman Catholic
Church
The role that the Roman Catholic Church played in
the history of prisons was one that may be considered
as necessary role it has to play. It was a response to the
imprisonment of Christians because of their faith. Thus,
“it was natural that when Christians were being hunted
down and cast into jail for their faith, the church should
recommend the faithful to visit the prisoners. The
deacons and deaconesses were especially charged with
the care of the incarcerated Christian, bringing them the
comfort of religion, food, clothing, and especially money,
which was needed to procure certain mitigations, even
liberty.”
 This practice became one of the causes for the
collection of sum of money and the conduct of
some charitable activities by the faithful. Debt
was as that time, a primary cause of
incarceration as it was considered as serious
crime.
However, the church was more considerate
with private debtors, especially if it sees that the
creditors are abusive of their rights. Thus it
offered asylum to debtors, and later took steps to
reform prison by instituting three reform
measures. First is the Indulgentia Pascalis an
edict of Valentian I, opened prisons “at Easter
and the prisoners set free.
The privilege was however not extended to those
arrested for sacrilege poisoning, treason, adultery” and
other serious crimes. Second is the right of asylum.
Under Constantine the Catholic Church had the right of
asylum, which was granted also by successors.
Constantine was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well
known for being the first Roman Emperor to convert to
Christianity. Accordingly, Charlemagne “ordained in a
capitulary that no one taking refuge in church should be
taken by it from force, but should be unmolested until the
court had pronounced its decision.” Charlemagne or
Charles the Great was the Emperor of the Carolingian
Empire. However, the right asylum was not absolute and
was not extended to adulterers, ravishers of young girls,
or public debtors; it was confined.
 Priscillian was the first recorded Christian who was
put to death for being a heretic. This was in the year 385
A.D. but death as capital punishment was first used in
1022 in Orleans, France when thirteen heretics were
burned at the instigation of the Church. Pope Innocent III
tried to wash his hands like a Pontius Pilate when it
turned over heretics to the secular authorities for proper
punishment that included death. But it was Pope
Gregory IX through his Papal Encyclical
“Excommunicamus” issued in 1231 that made part of
Canon Law, the burning of non-believers at the stake. It
was also Pope Gregory IX who initiated the Inquisition
that led to the burning of hundreds of heretics. Innocent
IV officially introduced torture to the Inquisition
procedure in 1252.
Pro-Life Pope John Paul II
Today, the stand of the
Church has become a complete
reversal of this past. It was the
present staunchly Pro-Life Pope
John Paul II who reversed this
culture of death. Through his
Encyclical Tertio Millenio
Adveniente, he formally
apologized to the past
intolerance and use of violence
in the defense of truth.
 In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II has
challenged each and every one of us to break away from
the “culture of death” especially the treatment of killings
as solution to problems. He calls us to reject the death
penalty, population control that resorts to abortion and
use of contraceptives that are artificial and abortifacient,
euthanasia or killing of the elderly, the terminally ill, the
infirm, the handicapped in the guise of mercy-killing or
dying with dignity. These are the solutions being
forwarded at the present times to solve the problem of
poverty and criminality when the real cause is the
excessive greed of people that results in a few being
immensely rich and the overwhelming many miserably
poor.
 From about the middle of the 14th century until the
beginning of the 19th century, gallery slavery was
imposed as punishment although this practice existed
long ago in ancient Rome and Greece. Convicted
criminals were chained and marched to the ships where
they were chained to their oars in the ship galleys where
they were to stay to oar the ship for the duration of their
sentences but in many cases their punishment is for life.
By the 1350’s galley slaves were also branded so that if
they happen to escape, they would be easily detected
and restored to their galley chains. The use of
imprisonment as punishment for an increasing number
of crimes began on the 14th and 15th centuries although
prisons were firsts established in the English Legal
Codes of the year 1890.
 The reason is not because man is becoming more
civilized but rather that prisoners were beginning to be
seen as work animals that could be exploited for profits.
This was the incipient age of the Industrial Revolution,
which will sweep Europe and propel colonialism
throughout the world in the next few centuries.
During these times, laws were passed making it illegal
for agricultural workers to change employment. Another
law mandated that workers in the agricultural and
manufacturing industries cannot accept wages higher
than those obtained in the middle of the 14 th century
otherwise they will be imprisoned. These laws were
enacted to protect the interests of landlords and
capitalists and to guarantee them enough profits at the
expense of course of the agricultural and industrial
workers.
 In those times, the jails or known then as goals, from
which the present day word derived its name, were hard
for poor prisoners but not those who were wealthy. This
was because prisoners have to pay for their
accommodations, food, and the cost of administration
and security. Beddings, blankets, lights and everything
were sold or rented to prisoners at very high rates. The
jailer or gaoler, as is known then, was paid from the
payment of prisoners. To save on cost, the jailer hires as
few staff as possible and security was compensated by
chaining the prisoners all of the time. Prisoners were
chained at the wrists, or ankles or neck and these chains
were tied to rings in the wall or floor of the prison.
 Walnut Street Jail 1790
Walnut Street Prison behind old “gaol”
 What has been called “the first American penitentiary,
if not the first one in the world, “was established in
Philadelphia, in 1790, in the Walnut Street Jail, a
building formerly operated as a city jail. “The cell blocks
constructed in the Walnut Street Jail, pursuant to the law
of 1790, introduced in permanent fashion the structural
pattern of outside cells, with a central corridor, the chief
architectural feature of the Pennsylvania system of
prison construction. Here, for the first time in penological
history, the use of imprisonment through solitary
confinement as the usual method of combatting crime
was permanently established. The basic principles of the
new system, so it appears from contemporary accounts,
were the effort to reform those in the prison, and to
segregate them according to age, sex, and the type of
the offense charged against them.
 By the 16th to the 18th centuries, flogging, branding
and mutilation continued to exist as the more common
forms of punishment. Mutilation was tied to the crime
committed. The hands of thieves were cut off so that
they could not steal again and also to serve as a
reminder to others to deter them from committing
crimes. Spies have had their eyes plucked out. Liars had
their tongues cut. The brank, a metal frame put in the
head like a hat and a painful mouthpiece was inserted in
the mouth of offenders whose punishments were
similarly imposed on women to still their tongues.
Pillories and stocks were used on convicts for short
changing the public such as selling fake or rotten
products. If the public hates the offenders, they would
even throw stinking eggs or meat, garbage or even dead
animals on the offender.
 Prison conditions and punishments in the 1500s to
the 1600s were virtually the same as those obtained in
earlier times. But the seeds of reforms had been
occurring sporadically and little by little in isolated places
and instances. Mercantilism was on the rise and was
gradually but steadily eroding and collapsing. The
landlords were slowly receding and the capitalists were
on the ascendancy. Naturally, there was a clash of two
social orders, the receding landlords and ascending
merchants. One was resisting its inevitable march to
oblivion while the other was insisting change. These two
social forces were fighting it out to control the common
people for exploitation. The landlords want to retain
them as peasants to work their vast landholdings while
the emerging capitalist class was pushing for more
“democracy” which in actuality was only a sanitized term
for the right of the newly emerging capitalists to also
gain right to exploit the people as slave workers being
paid measly wages.

Since capitalism was on the rise while feudalism was

on the retreat, naturally the situations forced many to
leave the landlord and seek employment in the
sweatshops. More and more people were leaving the
countryside’s for the cities without homes or jobs. This
was the principal cause of the American civil war, which
was nothing but a battle of the Yankees for the equal
right to possess and exploit the plantation slaves of the
Southern Confederacy.
 In England, King Henry VII decreed corporal
punishment for vagrants in 1531 and penal
slavery in 1547 to defend the interests of the still
dominant landlord class, where the nobility gets
their privileged status in society.

But the title of inevitable social change can no

longer be held back. The exodus of people
flocking to the cities from the rural areas could
not, therefore, be stemmed.
KING HENRY VIII
In ENGLAND he decreed
CORPORAL
punishment for vagrants in
1531 and penal slavery in
1547. Henry VII is normally
depicted in history books (or
more so the net technology,
who’d have it?) as a large man
in Tudor dress sporting a
beard. When we think of Henry
we see the dissolution of the
Catholic Church, one of his
largest royal actions.
No? Ok his 6 wives I know. But I suppose they do fit
together, as it was inability to divorce one of his queens
that led him to act so drastically towards the church. The
Church of England, being the end result of his marital
disagreements. Henry’s first wife was the widow of his
brother Arthur, his elder brother in fact who died at the
young age of fifteen.
This helped seal an alliance between England and Spain
as Catherine of Aragon was the daughter of King
Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Castile. To make this
marriage possible both parties had to ask the pope then
Pope Julius II to grant dispensation to avoid religious
havoc. In the book of Leviticus II states that if one were
to marry his brother’s wife they will remain childless.
KING EDWARD VI
A Jewel of King Henry VIII
Edward VI was crowned at the
age of nine with no maturity to
lead his kingdom from the front
and a Regency Council was set
up to assist his rule. It was
during Edward’s rule the
Protestantism acquired a
bigger hold over Catholicism in
England. Edward VI recognized
his cousin Lady Jane Grey as
an heir to the throne, which
was not accepted by the Privy
Council and declared Mary,
his catholic half-sister to bear the crown. Edward was
born to King Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour.
Henry VIII broke up with both his wife and he also
executed his second wife under adultery for the only
reason that she did not bear him a son. The King and
kingdom was wishing for a male heir to the throne and the
long wait was over on 12 October 1537 when Edward was
born. Edward grew up lavishly with the lady mistresses
taking care of him until the age of six. Henry was very
particular of bringing him very neatly and he insisted upon
the security and the cleanliness to be maintained in his
son’s room. Henry VIII considered Edward as one of the
precious gifts that he had got and could not afford to lose
it. His formal education started when his was six year old.
He was very fond in music
and he also learnt to play few musical instruments. He
studied geometry, history and had great interest in
collecting globes and maps. His peers were the children
of nobles, and Barnaby Fitzpatrick was known to be his
best friend. The war which broke out with the Scots over
turning down the Treaty of Greenwich had come to be
known as? The Rough Wooing? Henry VIII waged war
and it had continued to Edward’s reign as well. Because
Edward was not old enough to be a monarch of
England, Henry’s will demanded the appointment of
sixteen executors to assist Edward till he was eighteen
years old. But Edward’s Uncle Edward Seymour
proclaimed and took over the authority for two years
starting 1547. Even though it led to controversy, Edward
Seymour was supported by thirteen out of sixteen
executors in making him the Lord Protector. Two big
revolutions broke out during the reign of Edward VI. One
was called the Prayer Book Rebellion and the other was
because of the intrusion of landlords on common
grounds. This social unrest soon spread to the other
parts of the Kingdom as well. Edward believed in the
faith of Protestantism. He did not want his half-sister
Mary to ascend to the throne with the fear that Mary
would restore Catholicism in England. So he removed
both his half-sister Mary and Elizabeth from the line of
succession. Edward VI died on 6 July 1553 and was
buried in Henry VII Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey.
It started with fever and cold which was worsened during
the next few months. His last public appearance was on
1 July 1553. Under the Bridewell System, vagrants and
prostitutes were give work while serving their sentences.
And for all practical intents and purposes, only the
capitalist class can exploit this prison labor. This was the
seed of the prison industry program, which exist in many
penal institutions the world over up to this day. This was
a victory for the capitalist class over the landlord class
because they were able to exploit the slave labors of the
offenders for their benefit while it was impossible for the
landowners to utilize prison labor for their landholdings
at this time. This Bridewell system turned out to be very
effectively workable and profitable so that twenty years
after it was first established, the English Parliament
mandated all counties to establish this kind of prison.
Two centuries later, however, the Bridewell system lost
its usefulness because banishment of offenders to the
colonies became a more compelling and profitable
proposition to both the landlords and capitalist invoking
strategic national interest and security considerations as
overriding reasons. In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, significant reforms were made, spurred on by
colonialist England’s insatiable appetite for workers to
man its growing industrial capacity. Soon every county
had a Bridewell where employment under a contract
system was offered. But by the end of the seventeenth
century, England had abandoned its penal reform
orientation due to increasing seriousness of the crime
problem brought on by missive influx of people from the
rural areas. The Bridewells soon became inoperative and
deteriorated that conditions there have become no
different from the conditions in the county jails.
 CHAPTER II
The History, Philosophy and Objectives of
Imprisonment and the Development of
Prisons
 As a result of these developments, numerous
fortifications such as Fort Santiago in Manila, Fort Pilar
in Zamboanga City and almost every significant coastal
town along the width and breadth of the Philippine
archipelago were built by the Spaniards as defense
against marauding pirates and bandit groups who refuse
to recognize the colonial authority of Spain. But unlike
the fortifications in the Philippines was built by prison
labor, the fortifications in the Philippines was built by
unpaid labor which rendered services not because of
punishment but they were forced labor abducted at large
from among the general populace by the Spanish
conquistadors. At the onset of the 18th century, prison
labor in Marseilles, France was organized into state
factory and was then rented out to a group of merchants.
A memorandum of agreement is signed by the
contracting merchant and the state for the utilization of
able-bodied prisoners. This development sowed the
seeds of the practice of providing health services in
prisons to treat medical problems of prisoners.It is
seemingly clear that medical service in prisons which is
standard practice nowadays and was even incorporated
in United Nations Convention for the Treatment of
Prisoners was borne out of the need to maintain the
health of prisoners so that their profitability can be
maximized not out of humanitarian reasons as the
government and the merchants want to make it appear.
English immigrants settled in the American colonies
bringing with them the pattern of their social and political
institutions. In addition, banishment of English convicts
to the colonies added a lot of people with hands on
knowledge of the English prisons systems. Hence
American prisons were copied from their European
cousins across the Atlantic Ocean. But it was poor copy
considering that there was neither any funding nor was
there any compelling need for the establishment of
formal prison institutions. Application of punishment was,
therefore, extremely primitive. Even if the American
colonies were laggards in this field compared to their
European counterparts, it was in the late 18 th century
that they began to lead the way in prison reforms and
innovation. The first recorded prison in the colonies was
established in Amsterdam in the state of New York
sometime in the middle of the 1600s. Though
incarceration was also resorted to as a form of
punishment, its more common use was for those
undergoing trial and for those who refused to pay debts
Connecticut and Maine used underground facilities to
incarcerate offenders for many years due to lack of
funds for the establishment of a formal prison institution.
The Maine State Prison contained cells in the pits similar
to the underground cistern of long ago Rome that are
used to detain offenders undergoing trial in some cases
and to hold sentenced offenders where they will be
starved to death. These pits are entered through an iron
grate in the ceiling and are being used as late as 1828.
The state of Connecticut used a copper mine at
Simsbury from 1773 to 1827 as prison facilities. The
prisons worked in the mines during the day and then
their ankles and necks are shackled during night time to
prevent escape.
SING SING PRISON
Sing Sing Prisons became
famous or rather infamous over
the world and was the plot of
many movies filmed because of
the Sing Sing bath which was
inflicted aside from the
floggings, denial of reading
materials and solitary
confinement. The shower bath
was a gadget so constructed as
to drop a volume of water on the
head of a locked naked
offender.
The force of icy cold water hitting the head of the
offender caused so much pain and extreme shock that
prisoners immediately sank into comas due to the
shock and sudden drop in the body temperature. The
Sing Sing bath become more frequent when flogging
was declared illegal in 1847.
Not to be outdone, the Roman Catholic Church also
introduced an innovative prison system for punishing
offenders. This is the prison that was divided into cells
and this was first established in the year 1704 at the
Hospital of St. Michael during the reign of Pope
Clement XI. St. Michael Prisons was the prototype of
the reformatories for juvenile offenders, which are to
be introduced centuries later. St. Michael Prisons is
proof that retribution and repression is an abject failure
in the control of criminality. So St. Michael emphasized
the rehabilitative concept and pioneered the segregation
of prisons and forced silence to make the prisoners
contemplate their wrongdoings. Though physical torture
was severely minimized and reserved only for the
incorrigibles, this was supplanted by mental and
psychological stress due to the extreme loneliness of
segregation and forced silence. The convicts are
chained in one foot and observing strict rule of silence,
they listened to religious brothers giving religious
teachings. Many of the practices pioneered in St.
Michael were later to be adopted in the United States in
what is now to be known as the Auburn system of
imprisonment. This was the first of two prisons
authorized by the New York law of 1816. The second
prison was Sing-Sing authorized in 1824 to replace new
gate in Greenwich Village built 1796. The emphasis was on
individual cell-block architecture to create an environment to
rehabilitate and reform, to separate the criminal from all contact
with corruption and then teach him moral habits of order and
regularity by means of sever discipline. Inmates worked as
contract convict labor 10 hours per day, 6 days per week. Alexis
de Tocqueville visited Sing-Sing in 1831 and wrote about its
system of discipline. The Auburn model influenced the
emergence of reform schools and workhouses in the 1820s,
such as the New York House of Refuge in 1825 that separated
juveniles from the adult prisoners, and the workhouse on
Blackwell’s Island for vagrants and drunks and misdemeanants.
New York City built the Tombs on Centre Street in 1838 to add
prison capacity to the old Bridewell jail and the 1814 Bellevue
Penitentiary and the 1828 Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary
(Blackwell’s was closed by reform mayor LaGuardia and all
inmates moved to the new Rikers Island in 1934).
Prison cell in Auburn
Inmates frequently were
driven mad by the isolation
and soon enough this
system resulted in
substantial number of
suicides and insanity and
the practice was
abandoned five (5) years
after it was introduced.
Solitary confinement as a
method of punishment was
abandoned in the United
States because mad
prisoners cannot be made productive and unprofitable to
maintain. The Auburn prison system was modified to
allow the prisoner to work during daytime in common
areas but must still maintain absolute silence and then
spend their nights in solitary confinement. A facility was
built inside the prison to serve as factory which will
contract the slave labors of prisoners. This modification
was more in response to the vested call to exact benefits
and profitability from the inmate rather than the urge to
exercise more humanity on the part of the state. This
modification was adopted because it was found out that
people working collectively in common areas produced
more benefits than people working individually. And the
smaller individual cells made prisons cheaper to build
and maintain especially on the matter of security.
 The state government contracted private businesses
to produce varied items of manufacture using prison
labor. . It was through the Auburn prison that the United
States was able to harness the labor power of prisoners
to become part of the expansion that was pushing the
young nation to rapid industrialization. By the late 18 th
century up to the early 19th century, Pennsylvania
became a leading innovator in prisons operation and
this became the Pennsylvania system which was the
rival of the Auburn system during these times. Three
institutions were built in the state of Pennsylvania: the
Walnut Street Jail in 1790, the Western Penitentiary in
1826 and the Eastern Penitentiary in 1830.
Eastern State Penitentiary 1829
REFORMATORY of the prisoners for Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania System is based on the concept of

solitary confinement and rendering labor. Each cell had
a smile exercise area to allow the prisoner to maintain
physical condition and not physically debilitate, not so
much because it is humane and civilized to do so, but
because the prisoner is more valuable if physically fit to
continue producing more for a longer period of time.

The facility also has a work area on which the

prisoner has to work during the day. The solitary
confinement aspect of incarceration is coupled with Bible
reading with the end in view of making the prisoner
undergo a spiritual and emotional transformation and to
eventually leave the facility a reformed person.
The facility also has a work area on which the prisoner
has to work during the day. The solitary confinement
aspect of incarceration is coupled with Bible reading with
the end in view of making the prisoner undergo a
spiritual and emotional transformation and to eventually
leave the facility a reformed person.

In essence, the Bible is being used to pacify and

mollify the convict and makes him more pliable and,
therefore, more exploited productive member of society
upon his release.
THE FIVE (5) MAJOR DEPLOYMENTS OF PRISONERS

There are five major deployments of prisoners existing

in the United States during the 20th century. These are
the Northern industrial prison, the Southern
plantation prison, chain gangs and other
decentralized work camps, the custody-oriented
prison, and the treatment-oriented prison. Even today,
these five types are still existing and in use in one form
or another.
The Northern industrial prison is so-called because
they are found in the industrial belt of the Northern
United States. The State Penitentiary at McAlester,
Oklahoma is a typical example of the industrial
emphasis of prisons in the United States.
The prisoners are made to perform labor to earn
revenues for the upkeep of the facility and profit for the
state treasury. The three methods used to benefit from
prison labor are through the contract, state account and
state-use system.
Under the contract system, prisoners are hired out to
businessmen or corporations on a daily basis for a set
fee per head. In the state account system, contractors
provide the raw material and pay the state on a per-
piece price for each item produced or manufactured.
The state-use system is a more risky venture but if
properly managed, would bring bigger profits to state.
Under this set-up, the state operate the business itself in
all its aspect, construct the factory, buy all the raw
materials, processed this into finished products and then
handle the marketing. The state government then
gets to keep all the profits earned or absorb all the
losses if it is clumsily handled.
As its name implies, Southern Agricultural
Plantations are located in the agricultural deep south of
the United States. These penal institutions possess vast
landholdings and uses prison labor to produce
agricultural products out of the land. The harvests
accrue to the benefit of the state government where a
part of the income is used to finance the operating cost
of the facility. These plantations have minimal facilities
and, therefore inexpensive to operate. To further
minimize on the already minimal opera, savings are
further increased by decreasing the number of paid
security personnel and in their stead use armed
“trustees ting cost.” These trustees are minimum
security convicts whose services of guarding their fellow
inmates are secured in exchange for certain privileges
not granted to ordinary prisoners. Some of these
privileges are exemption from heavy work in the fields or
in the machineries and equipment, better prison
accommodation, lesser restrictions, and longer visiting
hours including overnight conjugal visits.
Another prisoner deployment scheme employed by
the United States corrections service in order for the
state to gain benefits from prisoners is the chain gangs.
Under this scheme, prisoners work in public works
projects outside of the facilities. This system gained
prominence in the Deep South after the American civil
war. The Deep South was deeply and badly defeated by
the Northern Yankees and their government became
bankrupt, their economies collapsed and many public
works projects such as roads and bridges were
destroyed in the war. Today, some are also deployed in
natural resources conservation work. To rebuild this part
of the country, prisoners were brought out from their
incarceration cells and made to work in reconstruction
projects. To secure the prisoners against escape when
they are on the work site far from the prisons, they were
chained together, hence, the term “chain gangs”
evolved. And at night, the chain gangs were locked up in
small portable cages for lack of better confinement
facilities while on the road. The Chain Gang Scheme
was originally imposed on black prisoners. White
prisoners were used until many decades later. In
Alabama, white prisoners were deployed only in the
1940s. Many times, chain gang deployment is
decentralized to the local counties engaging their
services and there is little central control when this is
done. Because of this, conditions suffered by chain
gangs varied greatly in each county.
Some counties are more benevolent while others are
exceedingly malevolent. In the early years of the system,
especially when blacks were the chained gangs,
conditions were so vicious. The Sweat Box in which
prisoners were put in a steel box in the hot sun was
used as punishment. In the Philippines, this was locally
called the “plants” for being as hot as the device used to
iron our clothes. Because of this some knowledgeable
circles tagged this as the American Siberia. Some used
almost no corporal punishment while others used a great
deal. By the 1930s, some North Carolina counties
no longer chained their road gangs; others chained only
a few of the more dangerous prisoners, and some
chained almost all of them. Even today, the US
Correctional Service continues to deploy inmates in the
road and other public works projects scattered across
the nation. Some penal institutions such as the Texas
Department of Corrections deploy its inmates in several
prison schemes. About half of its inmates are deployed
in the plantation areas, ten percent work in prison
industries and another ten percent are deployed as
chain gangs working on construction and maintenance.
The remaining thirty percent remain inside the penal
facilities to perform internal maintenance and service at
the institution.
 The Custody-Oriented Prison is biased towards
prison security and the prevention of escapes and riots..
This type of prison is a remnant of the prisons of the
past century when prisoners are punished by confining
them only to their cells and isolating them from the rest
of society. In this type of set-up, the only activity
custodial care which the custodial or security force
provides. This approach is used in super maximum
prison facilities where the occupants are hardened
criminals who are likely to escape when given a little
freedom of movement. In this type of prison many
prisoners become bored, irritable, and excitable at the
least provocation. It is in this type of prison that riots
generally occur.
One of the factors contributing to riot is that corrections
staff becomes infected also by the contagion of prisoner
boredom, irritability and excitability. Eventually some
personnel resort to brutal practices and the charged
atmosphere brought about by the tenseness of the
personnel, prisoner and the prison itself give rise to riots
at the slightest provocation. Sometimes, even riots in
other prisons without any connection whatsoever to
another prison is enough justification for a riot to occur in
the other prison.
 The Treatment-Oriented Prison became the vogue
in 1960s when this became the goal in almost every
penal institution. But treatment-oriented prisons
emerged only in the state of Wisconsin in 1913. This law
legalized work release program in this state. Five years
later, another law was enacted in the state Mississippi.
This was the furlough program. It took another thirty-
seven years before North Carolina followed suit with its
own work release law. But when the Prisoner
Rehabilitation Act of 1965 became law in the United
States, many states began to implement these programs
as part of the treatment oriented system in the US prison
system.
 The treatment programs involved a whole array of
educational, vocational, counseling and other services
which were made available to the inmate involving
psychological, sociological, social and many other
components. Work releases and furloughs allowed
qualified and deserving prisoners to be released and be
employed in the free community while returning only to
the penal facility after work hours. Furloughs enable
prisoners to spend part of their time in the free
community.

But what enabled the spread of treatment-oriented

programs across the US was the centralization of state
prisons. This enabled many isolated rural prisons to
implement sophisticated, centrally directed, uniform
treatment programs using knowledge, skills, personnel
and other resources provided by state correction
agencies. Centralization of the Prison System in
the US first occurred in South Carolina in 1866
when the State General Assembly ordered the
transfer of prisoners from the control of counties to
the state. To enable the state to take custody of
the transferred prisoners, state penitentiaries were
constructed. However, there was strong
resistance from the countries due to their need for
prison labor to do road construction and
maintenance work. The state compromised so
that by the 1930s the counties had won
concessions to choose the prisoners they will
retain and those they will send to the state.
 Since there were more treatment programs and
generally better living conditions available in the state
penitentiary than in the local prisons and jails, this
resulted in much inequity. Beginning 1910, the US
Congress passed many laws declaring various crimes to
be under federal jurisdiction. One of these is the White
Slave Act in 1910 which signalled the enactment of more
federal laws increasing the number of crimes acquired
by federal jurisdiction and therefore resulting in
increasing number of convicted offenders brought in to
the federal prison system. This necessitated the building
of more federal prison facilities to accommodate the
increasing number of federal prisoners.
From the first construction of numerous federal prison
facilities in 1926 it was only in 1940 that the capacity of
federal prisons matched up with the number of federal
prisoners.
By the 1930s, the increased number of federal prisoners
moved the House of Representatives to centralize the
federal prisoners moved the House of Representatives
to centralize the federal prison affairs and thus was
enacted a law creating the US Bureau of Prisons under
the Department of Justice. With the establishment of the
Bureau of Prisons came also the creation of national
classification system for offenders based on security
status, age, offense, and sex to improve service delivery,
treatment and to separate the hardened criminals to the
softer, more pliable and more susceptible to treatment.
This centralization also resulted in the
professionalization of corrections officers instead of
being political appointees subservient to the appointing
politician. Another result is the creation of a government
corporation to oversee all federal prison industries.

In the early part of the 20th century, a Federal Prison

System existed in name only. The prison landscape was
anything but disorganized because prison wardens were
political appointees unprofessionally running their
institutions as if it is their fiefdom. Policies and
procedures lack uniformity and consistency since only
the wardens developed their own separate rules for their
own institutions only.
It was only in 1930 that centralization of federal prisons
began to take a serious turn when the Cooper
Committee of the US House of Representatives
rendered its report about the federal prisons. This
resulted to a law creating the United States Bureau of
Prisons under the wings of the Department of Justice.
This bureau held office in Washington, D.C. to
administer to all penal facilities and offices of the Federal
Prison System.
Centralization enabled the implementation of a
national classification system for prisoners based on
type of facility, offense, age and sex. This paved the way
for the institution of effective correctional services and
prevented the inappropriate mixing of prisoners most
especially first time offenders being mixed with hardened
criminals.
Other improvements attained by centralization include
the creation of a government corporate entity overseeing
all federal prison industries, training program for the
skills upgrading of correctional service by weaning
political appointments to the civil service system. This
situation also enabled the hiring of experts and
specialists to perfect the system, which would have been
impossible to attain in a localized small-scale
decentralized arrangements.
Down to the vast ages, it was only in the 18 th century
that a philosopher by the name of Immanuel Kant gave a
definite expression to the concept of retribution as a
philosophy. He argued that there is no reasons for
imposing punishment against offenders save for the fact
that they have broken the law. In his views, criminals are
inherently evil and have to be
punished therefore. Criminology as a system for dealing
with wayward members of society had its beginnings in
England and Italy about two centuries ago. It came into
being as a counterfoil to the extreme capriciousness and
excessive harshness in meeting punishments by those
who wield power. Before the advent of criminology, the
customary method of dealing with convicted offenders
was corporal punishment in which the more common
forms are flogging, mutilation, branding, and the stocks
and pillory. Capital punishment was also frequently
applied. Although the eighteenth century was a period of
ferment owing to the massive dislocation of the country
sides, urbanized areas brought about by the Industrial
Revolution, it was in the age that the Age of
Enlightenment came to the fore and commanded a
strong presence in France which at that time was
considered as an influential country when it comes to
culture and arts.
The Western world underwent a no-nonsense self-
analysis and self-criticism due to the writings of
enlightened philosophers such as the likes of Rousseau,
Voltaire and Montesquieu. Their philosophical writings
propelled them to massive popularity and they become
immensely influential to many other writers and budding
philosophers.
CESARE BECCARIA
It was during this period of
intellectual high tide that an
Englishman by the name of
JEREMY BENTHAM
(February 26, 1748 – June 6,
1832) and an Italian who
swear by the name CESARE
BONESANA but whose name
was known far and wide in the
fields of Criminology as simply
BECCARIA because he
happened to be the
MARQUIS DE BECCARIA,
born Ezechia Marco Lombroso (November 6, 1836 –
October 19, 1909) made great contributions to the
advance of criminology. These two men, Bentham and
Beccaria became the strongest advocates of the
enlightenment in the fields of criminology and their
writings were considered as the Classical School of
Criminology. These two criminologists are of the opinion
that man has a free will and he has the capacity to
exercise that free will. However, the problem lies in the
fact that man’s free will is being acted out only to satisfy
his selfish interests. Bentham believed in the Aristotelian
concept that two conflicting forces govern man: pain and
pleasure. He saw that crime, like any other human
actions represents an effort to gain pleasure or
something beneficial to him.
To these two thinkers who belong to the classical school
of criminology, they both saw that man is responsive to
positive reinforcement hence the proposal for rewards
and education instead of punishment as the means to
attain justice. In one of his works, Beccaria wrote that
education, not punishment, is the surest although the
most difficult means of preventing crime. Beccaria
piercingly argued against the unregulated and capricious
discretion of sentencing authorities whose inflicted
punishments are characterized by abject cruelty and
whimsical recklessness. He abhorred the death penalty,
the use of torture as punishment, secret accusations,
reinterpretation of laws by judges, and the
disproportionality oppressive punishment imposed on
minor offenders among others.
 Although these two philosophers strongly
advocated the use of positive approach such as
rewards and education, they likewise did not reject
the necessity punishment. But they argued that
punishment must be proportionate to the crime
committed and should only be dished out as a last
resort when all else have failed. Just enough fear of
punishment should be achieved to prevent crime. The
purpose of punishment is only to prevent the offender
from committing a crime gain and to deter others from
committing crime.
To them and the Classical School they belong to
deterrence should have none of the viciousness and
savagery of punishment reminiscent of the Dark
Ages.
Instead, it should create the impression that justice is
achieved through the respect for due process and the
justness of punishment. Punishment should be strongest
in the psychological side and not on the physical pain it
is able to inflict on the criminal for it is on this plane that
the strongest and most enduring impression remains in
the minds of men. The offender must understand that
crime does not pay and that the offender should join with
the rest of the community in building a better society.
To these reformers of the late 18th century, criminality
is a problem that is blamed not on the offender but
principally due to corruptions in the community.
Corruptions have also infected two of the pillars of society,
the family and the Church because of the weakening of
the family and the Church,
moral decadence set in which led to deviancy. To
counter this, corrections reformers of this period saw the
necessity of building penitentiaries where it is believed
that offenders should be removed from the community
and isolated from all temptations to wrongdoings and
mend their ways through a steady an regular regimen.
One of these correctional reformers was a
SHERIFF from BEDFORDSHIRE, England by the
name of JOHN HOWARD became concerned at the
savage and inhuman conditions obtaining in his
country’s prisons. He was also able to visit hundreds of
incarceration facilities across many countries in Europe
and found them to be as bad as the English prisons. He
wrote this into a book and made numerous
recommendations to reform the prison system.
John Howard
Pioneer prison reformer
Author of ‘State of Prisons’
1777

John Howard was born in

1726 in Clapton, the son of a
successful businessman. His
childhood was stark and
restrictive; he received little
quality time from his father and
his mother dies when he was
only 5.
 Perhaps as a result he showed no academic
prowess, sports were of no interest to him, and he
suffered severe bronchial attacks. In short, not much
was expected of John Howard. At the age of 16 he was
apprentice to a green grocer, but the death of his father
shortly afterwards left John Howard the master of his
own life.

He travel abroad and it was a trip to Portugal in 1756

that he was captured by a French privateer and taken
prisoner. Eventually he was exchanged for French officer
and released, after which he immediately went to the
Commissioner of Sick and Wounded Seamen and
succeeded in getting action on behalf of English
seamen.
In 1773 at the age of 47 John Howard was appointed
Sheriff of Bedfordshire, a post intended to ensure safety
of the judge, but as no judge had been kidnapped for
500 years the position was of little consequence.
However, it was to be the catalyst that transformed
Howard’s life from the obscure to the heroic.

When Howard was present in court he noticed that

even when there was no case against prisoners they
were still returned to jail. When he enquired as to why
this happened he was told that even though the prisoner
is innocent he must still play a gaoler fee because the
gaoler receives no salary and relies on the fees for food
and lodgings paid for by the prisoners. Howard travelled
to other jails and soon discovered that this practice was
in other gaols.
Within the year two bills were passed, one setting free
all the prisoners that were in jail for non-payment of fees
and authorized gaolers to receive a salary from the
county; the second dealt with health in prisons. Howard
did not stop there. Throughout 1775 and 1776 he toured
the prisons of Europe and meticulously recorded his
observations of conditions in these prisons.

Howard realized that the passing of a law does not

mean changes will be made quickly. He continued to
tour prisons to monitor the progress of reforms. In 1789
he once more set off for Eastern Europe and contracted
typhus after tending to a prisoner and died on the 20 th
January, 1790, at the age of 64. There were many
tributes including a statue of him in St. Paul’s Cathedral,
the first time a commoner had been so honoured.
In 1866 the Howard Association was formed to continue
his work, followed by the League for Penal Reform.
These two organizations merged in 1921 to form the
Howard League for Penal Reform.

Some of his notable recommendations were

farsighted at the time such as the maintenance of
facilities for children and women to separate from other
offenders, provision of sanitation facilities , adequate
salaries for jailers so that they do not have to extract
their pay from the prisoners. Many of his landmark
recommendations were incorporated into the
Penitentiary Act of 1779 and adopted as standard
procedure in the first modern prison constructed in the
year 1785 in Norfolk, England.
During these times, the Industrial Revolution is already
in full swing in England and the rest of Europe. This
resulted in massive migration of poor rural folks from the
relatively staid country sides to the blighted urban areas
in search of a better life.
They, in turn, had to work long and tedious hours in
dirty sweatshops, the precursor of the modern day
factories, and being paid a pittance in return and
therefore, are forced to reside foul-smelling and disease-
ridden ghetto communities because of the very meagre
incomes they are paid by the capitalists.
In time, these severely depressed communities not
only were foul smelling and disease-ridden. They also
became the breeding ground of criminals who are forced
to violate the law in order to survive.
Thus, for about 50 years from the latter part of the 1700s
to the early part of the 1800s, European countries swept
by the industrial revolution experienced a tumultuous
social upheaval of sorts and dramatic upsurge in the
incidence of criminality. In England, in a matter of 25 to
27 years, the years 1830-1833 had a five-time increase
in criminal convictions compared to the years 1805-
1806. France likewise experienced an increase in crime
more than two times in a matter of seventeen years from
1825 to 1842.
Thereafter, harsh laws and severe punishments were
re-imposed, number of death convicts rose more than
five times in England. Prison populations attained the
same level of increase as those to be executed. This
resulted in overcrowding and the concomitant
deterioration of prison conditions.
And the number of prisoners banished to the colonies
likewise experienced an upsurge.
The increase in prison population, which was the
result of worsening economic conditions across the
European continent, also aggravated the conditions of
prisoners. Prison budgets could not be increased due to
the dire financial straits while the number of prisoners
kept increasing. This led to inadequate food and
starvation in most prisons. This resulted in increased
prison mortality.
The return of capital punishment in the Philippines
underscores the seriousness of the crime situation in the
country today. And following the experience of the
European countries, the death penalty maybe abolished
when the country’s peace and order situation improves.
 FORM OF PUNISHMENT
One form of punishment inflicted on prisoners is the
shot-drill which simply involved carrying heavy loads
from one place to another and then returned to the same
place over and over again every day. Another method
devised used to make the prisoner suffer is the treadmill
where the prisoner is continually made to constantly
climb stairs. Prisoners are made to climb this treadmill
continually during the day with prisoners logging up to
14,000 feet of stairs per day or the equivalent of three to
four stiff mountains climbed per day.
According to one estimate, about two hundred thousand
people in Europe who were accused of being witches
were executed during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. During the reign of Henry VIII alone, 72,000
citizens were put to death. He also legalized boiling to
death as one means of executing convicted offenders.
When the penal code of England was revised sometime
in the first half of the 1800s, 222 types of offenses can
be punished by death through hanging. The Anglo-
American custom of imprisonment as a means of
dealing with lawbreakers can be traced to the invasion of
England by William the Conqueror. Undoubtedly
William found a number of manors that were used to
confine undesirables, and he added to their number.
Still, execution, mutilation, exile, and branding were the
most popular means of punishment at that time.
 Jails were for holding prisoners until they were
punished. When William the Conqueror became the
ruler of England, he ordered the abolition of the death
penalty but this does not mean that he is a more
civilized, just and humane ruler. Though he decreed that
no one should be deprived of life, the replacement
punishment is just as brutal and inhuman. The
offender’s eyes shall be gouged out and his feet, hands
and testicles cut off to serve as a living testimony of his
crime and evilness and to serve as a horrifying reminder
to others to refrain from doing evil.
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR
Became the Ruler of England;
he ordered the abolition of the
death penalty.Using his
influence, William gathered an
army of 6,000 soldiers, which
he used to conquer England.
After placing himself on the
throne, he rewarded his
vassals from Normandy with
the lands of many English
nobles. William the Conqueror
began to raise funds by
enacting a tax on his people.
CESARE LOMBROSO
DESCRIBED CRIME AS A
SOCIAL PHENOMENON

He was an Italian Prison

Doctor and the Father of
Criminology. Lombroso
formulated his thinking based
on his studies of a notorious
brigand by the name of
Vilella. This convict is of such
agility that he was rumored to
scale steep mountain heights
carrying a load of sheep on
his shoulders.
 This brigand openly boasted of his crimes. This could
be the reason why Lombroso claimed that criminals
have the uncanny ability to quickly recuperate from their
wounds and has no moral compunction, whatsoever. On
the death of Vilella, Lombroso conducted post mortem
examination on the bandit and when he opened the skull
he found a distinct depression, which is found only on
inferior animals. From this, he concluded that the
criminals are atavistic beings who look like savages and
apes and retain the ferocious instincts of primitive men
and inferior animals.
ENRICO FERRI
CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY BY
ENRICO FERRI PROFESSOR
OF CRIMINAL LAW DEPUTY
IN THE ITALIANA
PARLIAMENT, ETC. D.
APPLETON AND COMPANY
1899

Ferri argued that since the

causes of crime could be
controlled through prevention.
 And one of the best preventive measures is through
the reformation of society so that the breeding ground of
crime is cleansed. He asserted, “The problem of
criminality will thus be solved as far as possible,
because the gradual transformation of society will
eliminate the swamps in which the miasma of crime may
form and breed.” Human behaviour is largely coping
mechanism in responding to surrounding situations.
Increases in public disorder are often a response to
worsening economic conditions.
 CHAPTER III
A STUDY ON INSTITUTIONAL
AGENCIES IN THE PHILIPPINES
THE CODE OF KALANTIAW
The entire CODE OF
KALANTIAW contains only
18 ARTICLES but enough to
bring PEACE and
HARMONY

The Code was decreed by

Datu Kalantiaw about a
hundred years before the
coming of the Spanish salvers
and colonizers.
It continued to be the governing law long after the death
of Kalantiaw and ceased to exist only when the
Spaniards reached Panay and set up their government
there.
The entire Code of Kalantiaw contains only eighteen
articles but enough to bring peace and harmony.
Here are the eighteen (18) Rules of Kalantiaw:

Rule 1 – Do not kill, steal, or harm old people.

Punishment is drowning or boiling

Rule 2 – Pay all your debts promptly. Punishment for first

offense is whipping of 100 lashes. If the debt is large,
the violator’s hand will be immersed in boiling water
three times. Second offense will be death by beating.
Rule 3 – Do not be too lustful. Do not marry young girls
(paedophilia) nor marry more than you can handle and
support. First offense is swimming for three hours.
Second offense is lacerations with thorns.

Rule 4 – Respect the dead; do not disturb their graves

and burial places. First offense is exposure to the ants
while subsequent offense is beating to death by means
of thorns.

Rule 5 – Contracts shall be faithfully fulfilled. First

offense is one hour whipping. Subsequent offense is
one-day exposure to the ants.
Rule 6 – Valuable trees and places that are holy should
be respected. Fine for violation should be equal to one
month’s labor and paid in gold or honey. Subsequent
offense is the equivalent of five years labor.

Rule 7 – Cutting sacred trees, shooting arrows at old

people treacherously, entering the Chief’s homes without
permission is punishable by death.

Rule 8 – Setting fire to another’s crops, stealing the

wives of Chiefs and owning dogs that bit the Chiefs is
punishable by one year slavery

Rule 9 – Those who sing at night while on the road, kill

the manaul bird, destroy the Chief’s records, deceive
others and mock the dead will be beaten for two days.
Rule 10 – Mothers should educate their daughters
secretly about sex hygiene to prepare them for
motherhood, Men should be kind to their wives and
should not harm them if they are caught in adultery.
Violators will be cut to pieces or thrown to the crocodiles.

Rule 11 – Those who escape and evade punishment, kill

young children and steal the wives of old men will be
burned alive.

Rule 12 – Slaves who attack their masters or the Chiefs,

masturbates, or destroy anitos will be drowned.

Rule 13 – Those who steal from the Chiefs or old men

will be exposed to the ants for half a day.
Rule 14 – Those who refuse to marry their daughters to
the sons of the chiefs will be slaved for life.

Rule 15 – Those who kill the young of the manaul birds

or white monkeys will be beaten.

Rule 16 – Those who break the idols on their altars and

temples, destroy the daggers used by the priestesses for
killing sacrifices pigs or break their wine vessels will
have their fingers cut off

Rule 17 – Those who destroy the altars, temples, and

urinate or defecate in these sacred places will die.
Rule 18 – Chiefs who disobey any of these rules will be
stoned or crushed to death while old men who disobey
will be fed to the sharks or crocodiles. Although our own
brand of justice even if adjudged as backward and
primitive contains basic characteristics that is being
lobbied hard by the international gay rights and
decadent feminist movement emanating from the West
to become an accepted practice. The Kalantiaw Code
also shows a strong respect for a God, the dead and
even the environment with each rule on the protection of
valuable trees, the manaul birds and white monkeys.
THE BILIBID PRISON
(Presently, Manila City Jail)

The first penal institution

in the country, whose scope
is a national penitentiary in
nature, was established
even before the effectivity of
the Spanish Penal Code and
while the Recompilation
Laws were still the existing
law of the islands.
 This prison facility is the Bilibid Prison, which was
constructed sometime in the year 1847 in the Bilibid
District of the City of Manila from where it derived its
name. It was through the Royal Decree that this prison
was formally opened sometime in April 10, 1866. Initially
named Carcel y Prisidio Correctional which housed
about 1,127 prisoners all over the Philippines, located in
Azcarraga, Manila. This is located at the back of what is
today, the Central Market along Quezon Boulevard.

But while the Bilibid Prison was already in operation

since 1847, it was only recognized and formally
designated as an insular penitentiary through a Royal
Decree issued some eighteen years later in 1865.
The physical lay-out of the Bilibid Prison was
constructed in conformity with the dominant
concept of Criminology existing in Europe during
those time; custody, security and confinement of
prisoners. The buildings, which were referred to, as
“Brigadas” are made of very strong adobe stones.
Insidentally, the term brigada continue to be used in
prisons even until today.
The Bilibid Prison was transferred to its present site in
Muntinlupa in 1936 and renamed the New Bilibid Prison
in 1941, in what is now Muntinlupa City at the outskirt of
Metro Manila in its boundary with the province of
Laguna. To avoid confusion the Bilibid Prison in Manila
was named Old Bilibid Prison. This prison establishment
was constructed by virtue of Proclamation 414 in 1931
enabling order to CA No. 3732.
The prison authorities at the time were compelled to
move away from the Old Bilibid site because of the
inevitable development of the area for commercial
purposes. Bilibid was in the immediate vicinity of Quiapo
and Santa Cruz districts, which were the principal
trading and commercial center of the country in those
days.
The actual transfer of the prison was affected in 1941.
It became the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) while the one left
behind in Manila was renamed the Old Bilibid Prison to
avoid confusion and became the site of the Manila City
Jail until its day. Shortly before the outbreak of World
War II in the Philippines, all the prisoners at the Old
Bilibid were transferred to the New Bilibid Prison on the
recommendation of the cabinet. Prison labor was the
main work force in the construction of the facility.
 THE RECEPTION AND
DIAGNOSTIC CENTER
Recognizing the need to properly orient newly
committed prisoners to the Bureau of Corrections, the
Reception and Diagnostic (RDC) was created through
Administrative Order No. 8, series of 1953 of the
Department of Justice. It was patterned after the
reception facilities of the California State Prison. The
RDC is an independent institution tasked to receive,
study, and classify all national prisoners committed by
final judgment to the National Penitentiary.
CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES AND THEIR
FUNCTIONS

There are seven (7) correctional facilities of the

Bureau of Corrections which are located all over the
country. The confinement and rehabilitation programs
are undertaken by the following facilities.
(1) The New Bilibid Prison
The New Bilibid Prison is located in Muntinlupa,
Metro Manila. The New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City,
Philippines, is the main insular penitentiary designed to
house the prison population of the Philippines. It is
maintained by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) under
the Philippine Department of Justice. As of October
2004, it has an inmate population of 16,747. The
penitentiary had an initial land area of 551 hectares. One
hundred four hectares of the facility were transferred to a
housing project of the Department of Justice. This is
where the Bureau of Correction, Central office is co-
located.

Within the complex are the three (3) security camps are:
(a) The Maximum Security Compound
This compound houses
convicts whose sentences
are 20 years and above, life
termer or those under the
capital punishment including
the death row, those with
pending cases, those under
disciplinary punishment,
those whose cases are on
appeal, those under
detention and those that do
not fall under medium and
minimum status.
(b) The Minimum Security Camp
CAMP BUKANG LIWAYWAY
The name implying the
coming release of prisoners
destined here. This is an
open camp with less
restrictions and
regimentation. This is for
prisoners who are 65 years
old and above medically
certified invalids and for
those prisoners who have six
months or less to serve
before they are released from
prison.
The Medium Security Camp
CAMP SAMPAGUITA
Which houses medium
security prisoners, whose
prison term are below 20
year (computed from the
minimum sentence per
classification interpretation)
and those classified for
colony assignment. The
Youth Rehabilitation
Center for juvenile
offenders is also situated
here.
 And the third facility is the Reception and
Diagnostic Center presently known as The Inmate
Reception and Education Center. This is a prison
facility within the medium Security compound of the new
Bilibid Prison. It receives all newly committed national
male prisoners coming and it is the entry point of all
incoming prisoners who will be subjected to
classification and distribution the operating institutions.
Concurrently it has been charged with the responsibility
of providing education and training of inmates at the
medium security compound of NBP.
(2) The Davao Penal Colony
The Davao Penal
Colony is located in Tagum,
Davao del Norte. A prison
Security Compound for
medium security prisoners. It
was established at almost
the same time and under the
same authority that the New
Bilibid Prison was
established in January 21,
1932 by virtue of Act no.
3732
and Proclamation No. 41, series of October 7, 1931 as
per recommendation of Governor Dwight Davis. Retired
General Paulino Santos, the incumbent Prisons Director
at the time led the first contingent of prisoners that
opened the colony that covers an area of about 18,000
hectares.
(3) The Sablayan Penal Colony and Farm
On September 27,
1954, the President of the
Philippines issued
Proclamation No. 72
allocating 16,000 hectares
of land in Sablayan,
Occidental Mindoro for the
setting up of another penal
colony. The Sablayan
Penal Colony and Farm
was established
to meet the increasing population of prisoners that is
already causing serious congestion. This Penal Farm is
intended for agro-industrial activities. Within its area are
four 940 sub-colonies:

(1)Central sub colony

(2)Pasugui sub colony
(3)Pusog sub colony
(4)Yapang sub colony

All those colonies are administered by penal supervisor.

(4) The Iwahig Penal Colony
The first contingent of
prison personnel and
prisoners were drawn from
the Iwahig Penal Colony.
In November 16, 1904
another penal colony was
established in Iwahig,
Palawan (Luhit Penal
Settlement) on the orders
of Governor Forbes, then
the incumbent Secretary
of Commerce and Police.
The establishment of this penal facility was made on the
suggestion of Governor Luke E. Wright who felt the need
for an institution designed for incorrigible offenders.

An American construction foreman left Bilibid on

November 16, 1904 with sixteen prisoners and sailed for
Palawan to start building the colony thereat. However,
this contingent turned against their custodians, hogtied
their Superintended and the short-lived revolt was
quelled with the timely arrival of Philippine Scout
reinforcements from Puerto Princesa, the provincial
capital.
The three (3) prisons and Penal colonies the Old Bilibid
Prison, San Ramon Prison and Penal Farms and Iwahig
Penal Colony were placed under the Bureau of Prisons
jurisdiction including the Corregidor Stockades and the
Bontoc Prison which were later phase out of use.
Senator Salvador P. Laurel described the old Bilibid
Prison as the main penitentiary in the country and he
addressed it as “Carcel y Presidio Correctional” that he
estimated to accommodate 1,127 Prisoners. But the
Carcel was designed to accommodate 600 prisoners
only.
 Today, this penal institution is considered as one of
the most open penal institutions in the world. It was from
this facility that the term “Prison without Walls” had its
beginnings. Iwahig is divided into four sub-colonies for a
more practical consideration of easier administration and
management. The penal colony is located in Puerto
Prinsesa City, Palawan. It was designed for minimum-
security prisoners and after conducting the surveys; the
actual area of the land allocated by the President has
become 16,408.5 hectares.

This penal farm is predominantly designed for agro-

industrial activities. Within its area are four (4) sub
colonies:
(1)Central sub colony
(2)Montible sub colony
(3)Sta. Lucia sub colony
(4)Inagawan sub colony

The principal activity here as in any penal colony of the

country is agriculture and rice is the main product that is
not only used by the inmate of the colony but also
supplying some of the rice needs of the New Bilbid
Prison.
 Iwahig Penal Colony, owing to its vast landholdings
allocated 1,000 hectares, which was distributed to
release inmates who no longer had any desire to return
to their original homes and who instead want to settle for
good in Palawan.

The Tagumpay Settlement, which infers a

successful rehabilitation and return of prisoners to the
mainstream society. Each released prisoner awarded is
given a six-hectare farm lots as homestead. Due to
increasing population and criminality, more prisons and
penal colonies under the Bureau were created.
(5) The San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm
Twenty-two years after the
establishment of the Bilibid
Insular Penitentiary, the
San Ramon Prison and
Penal Farm was also
constructed in 1869 and
operated on August 21,
1870. This prison and
Penal Farm was
constructed near the
southern tip of
Zamboanga Peninsula
nearby what is now
Zamboanga City and originally intended for the
confinement of convicted Moro “insurrectos” fighting
subjugation by the Spanish “conquistadors.” The
Zamboanga peninsula was also a banishment site for
political non-conformists coming from Luzon and the
Visayas. San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm was
named in memory of its founder, Ramon Blanco, a
Spanish captain in the Royal Army. It was closed during
the Spanish-American War of 1898 but reopened in
1904 after the victorious Americans grabbed possession
of the Philippines from Spain and the Americans have
established control over this new colony of theirs. In
1900s the Americans took over and they created the
Bureau of Prisons under Reorganization Act No. 1407
dated November 1, 1905.
This was under the Department of Commerce and
Police. This Penal Prison and Farm has an aggregate
area of 1,524.6 hectares and was made productive
through the blood, sweat and tears of confined prisoners
who passed the portals of this penal institution in the
course of our country’s march in history.
Today, the principal product of the San Ramon Prison
is copra, which is one of the biggest sources of income
of the Bureau of Prisons. It also raises rice, corn, coffee,
cattle and livestock. Presently, it houses maximum,
medium and minimum-security prisoners. It now also
accepts convicts who were directly committed by the
courts in the area to this prison but are later sent to the
Reception and Diagnostic Center in the Central Office in
Camp Sampaguita in Muntinlupa City for study and
diagnosis.
(6) The Correctional Institution for Women
On November 27, 1929,
Act 3579 was passed into
law establishing of the
Correctional Institution for
Women (CIW). This penal
institution for women was
constructed on an 18-
hectare piece of land in what
is now Mandaluyong City.
Before the establishment of
this institution, women
prisoners were confined in
portion of the Bilibid Prison.
 The CIW in Mandaluyong, Rizal was established in
1931 by authority Act no. 3579. In 1934, the position of
Female Superintendent was created to supervise the
operations of this penal facility. Prison Director Ramon
Victorio passed Act No. 3579 in November, 1929 that
authorized the transfer of all women prisoners to a
building in Welfareville in Mandaluyong, Rizal. In
February 14, 1931 the women prisoners were finally
transferred from the Old Bilibid Prison to Women Prison
and presently known as Correctional Institution for
Women. Today, the institute is run entirely by female
personnel with the exception of the perimeter guards
who are male.
(7) The Leyte Regional Prison
The last penal facility to
be built by the Bureau of
Prisons is the Leyte
Regional Prison in
Abuyog, Leyte. This was
established in January 16,
1973 on the orders issued
under Martial Law by
President Ferdinand E.
Marcos.
To date, there are seven (7) major correctional facilities
in the country. P.D 28 dated October 25, 1972
establishes the Regional prisons and converts existing
national penal institutions into regular prison and penal
farms while PD 29 dated October 25, 1972 amended
subpart (D) of Section 1735 and subparts (B) of Section
1740 of the Revised Administrative Code. PD 139 dated
May, 1973, provides for an additional region prison in
Cebu.
As provided for in the New Administrative Code of 1987,
Section 26 the name of the Bureau of Prisons was
changed to the Bureau of Corrections in November 22,
1989 and it is one of the attached agencies of
Department of Justice that focused on the rehabilitation
functions of the Bureau.
 ORGANIZATION, CORRECTIONS
OFFICIALS AND FACILITIES

ORGANIZATION: The Bureau of Corrections is under

the Department of Justice. It is headed by the director
of corrections who I authorized to exercise command,
control and direction of the following prison facilities and
staff offices:
(a) Prison Facilities:
 The New Bilibid Prison at Muntinlupa City, Metro
Manila
 The San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm, Zamboanga
 The Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm at Puerto
Princessa City, Palawan
 Correctional Institution for Women at Mandaluyong
City, Metro Manila
 The Davao Penal Colony, Davao, Panabo Davao del
Norte
 The Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm at Sablayan
Mindoro Occidental
 The Leyte Regional Prison at Abuyog, Leyte
(b) Bureau of Corrections, Staff offices;
 Administrative Division
 Management Division
 General Services Division
 Accounting Division
 Supply Division
 Penal Production Division
 Inmate Reception and Education Center
 Budget and Finance Division
 Medical Coordinator’s Division
 Chaplain Service Office
 Legal Office
RECOMMENDATION
 To the Government. Support
the financial needs of every
correctional institution.

 To the Community. To welcome

the reformed persons with
open arms
Thank you and God
bless !