Enlightenment: Prison Reformers

Age of Enlightenment

• The 18th century was a time of change that recognized human dignity.
• It was a movement of reformation introducing correctional reforms.
• The goal was to change the old punishment philosophy to more humane treatment with innovative programs.

Prisoners Reformation

• Period reforms in correctional facilities
• William Penn (1614-1718):
  • Fought for religious freedom and individual rights.
  • First leader to prescribe imprisonment for major offenders.
  • Responsible for abolishing the death penalty and torture as punishment.
• Charles Montesquieu (1689-1755):
  • French historian and philosopher.
  • Analyzed law as an expression of justice.
  • Believed harsh punishment undermines morality; appealing to moral sentiments prevents crime.
• Voltaire (1694-1778):
  • Believed fear of shame deterred crime.
  • Fought the legality-sanctioned practice of torture.
• Cesare Bonesa, Marchese de Beccaria (1738-1794):
  • Wrote "An Essay on Crimes and Punishment," presenting the humanistic goal of law.
• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832):
  • The greatest leader in the reform of English criminal law.
  • Believed punishment should negate pleasure or gain from crime to reduce crime rate.
  • Devised the Panoptican prison: a circular building with cells around the periphery.
• John Howard (1726-1790):
  • Sheriff of Bedsfordshire in 1773.
  • Devoted his life and fortune to prison reform.
  • Recommended single cells, segregation of women and youth, sanitation, and abolishing jailers' fee system.

Reformatory Movement

• Alexander Maconochie:
  • Superintendent of the penal colony at Norfolk Island in Australia (1840).
  • Introduced the "Mark System," where prisoners earn marks based on department and labor to get parole.
• Manuel Montesimos:
  • Director of Prisons in Valencia, Spain (1835).
  • Divided prisoners into companies and appointed petty officers, allowing good behavior to prepare convicts for release.
• Domets of France:
  • Established an agricultural colony for delinquent boys in 1839, using housefathers as in charge of the boys
• Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise:
  • Director of the English Prison.
  • Opened the Borstal institution for young offenders, considered the best reform institution.
• Walter Crofton:
  • Director of the Irish Prison in 1854.
  • Introduced the Irish system, modified from Macanochie's mark system.
• Zebulon Brockway:
  • Director of the Elmira Reformatory in New York (1876).
  • Introduced training schools, compulsory education, casework, parole, indeterminate sentence.
  • The Elmira Reformatory is considered a forerunner of modern penology.

Penology, Penal Management, Correction, and Penitentiary Science

• Penology:
  • It is the study of punishment for crime or criminal offenders to control and prevent crime.
  • Derived from the Latin word "POENA," meaning pain or suffering, also known as Penal Science.
  • Division of criminology dealing with prison management, offender treatment, and society's efforts to repress crime.
• Penal Management: The manner of managing or controlling confinement places like jails or prisons.
• Correction:
  • A branch of the Criminal Justice System concerned with custody, supervision, and rehabilitation of criminal offenders.
  • Field of criminal justice administration that utilizes the knowledge and practices of handling convicted individuals.
• Penitentiary Science:
  • A relatively new science studying prison sentences and their effectiveness in the 20th century.
  • Uses findings in psychology, sociology, law, criminology, and other sciences.
  • Part of penology, studying sentences, including prison sentences and alternative punishments.

Historical Perspectives of Correction

• 13th Century-Securing Sanctuary:
  • Criminals could avoid punishment by claiming refuge in a church for 40 days, then had to leave the realm.
  • Torture became prevalent in England around 1468.
• 16th Century:
  • Transportation of criminals in England was authorized.
  • Russia and other European Countries followed to relieve prison overcrowding, but transportation was abandoned in 1835.
• 17th to Late 18th Century:
  • The death penalty became prevalent.
  • Gaols (Jails) were pretrial detention facilities operated by English Sheriffs.
  • Galleys were ships used for transporting criminals.
  • Hulks were abandoned warships used as prisons, also called "floating hells."

Early Codes

• Babylonian and Sumerian Codes:
  • Code of King Hammurabi (Hammurabic Code) from Babylon, around 1990 BC, is known for prescribing savage punishment.
  • Sumerian codes were nearly one hundred years older.
• Roman and Greek Codes:
  • Justinian Code: 6th C A.D., Emperor Justinian of Rome wrote his code intending to match punishment to crimes.
  • The law did not survive the fall of the Roman Empire but left a foundation for Western legal codes.
  • The Twelve Tables (XII Tabulae): 451-450 BC, the earliest codification of Roman law incorporated into the Justinian Code.
  • Foundation of all public and private law of Romans until Justinian's time, engraved on metal tablets and set up on the forum.
  • Greek Code of Draco: Harsh code that provides the same punishment for citizens and slaves.
  • Incorporated primitive concepts (Vengeance, blood feuds); Greeks were first to allow any citizen to prosecute the offender.
• Burgundian Code (500 A.D.): Punishments are specified based on the social class of offenders and specifying the value of the life of each person according to social status (nobles, middle class and lower class).

Penalty and Punishment

• Penalty: Suffering inflicted by the state for transgression of the law.
• Punishment: Infliction of pain or loss for a misdeed, ranging from capital to fines.
• Deferred punishments are penalties imposed only if an offense is repeated within a specified time.
• Punishment transitioned from vindictive to proportionate to controlled by the community and state.

Theories and Objectives of Punishment

• Modern punishment theories emphasize the individual's dignity, rationality, and responsibility starting in the 18th century.
• Quantity and severity of punishments reduced, prison system improved, and psychology of crime was studied.
• Retribution: Punishment should be provided by the state for violated sanctions, giving society the chance to enforce punishment.
• Expiation or Atonement: Punishment is in the form of group vengeance meant to appease the offended group or public.
• Deterrence: Punishing the offender to show others what happens if they violate the law, warning potential offenders.
• General Deterrence: Dissuading others from following the offender's example, assuming potential offenders calculate the risk.
• Individual Deterrence: Directed at the person being punished to prevent repeat behavior, also rationale for informal punishment.
• Incapacitation: Protecting the public by holding offenders in conditions where they cannot harm others.
• Rehabilitation: Aiming at restoring the offender to useful life and productive citizenship
• Restorative Justice/Restitution: Making efforts to repair damage to the victim and community as a result of an offender's actions through mediation between the victim, offender, and the community.

Ancient forms of Punishment

• Death Penalty: burning, beheading, hanging.
• Physical Torture: maiming, mutilation, whipping.
• Social Degradation: putting the offender into shame or humiliation.
• Banishment or Exile: sending the offender away of a territory to a place like island.

Early Forms of Prison Discipline

• Hard Labor: productive works.
• Deprivation: denying everything except for essential supplies.
• Monotony: giving the same food or requiring the routine.
• Uniformity: equal treatment for all prisoners with mass movement, mass eating, mass bathing.
• Degradation: insulting words or language to lower the confidence.
• Corporal Punishment: use of employment physical force to intimidate.
• Isolation or Solitary Confinement: non-communication and limited news.

Contemporary Forms of Punishment

• Imprisonment: putting the offender in prison to protect the public and rehabilitate the prisoner.
• Parole: conditionally releasing a prisoner to re-introducing to free life under supervision of a parole officer.
• Probation: when a defendant is released pending good behavior to supervision of a probation officer.
• Fine: an amount given as compensation for commit criminals.
• Destierro: the penalty of banishing a person from where the crime occurred, not allowing them back within 25km.

Conditions of Penalty

• Productive of suffering without affecting the human personality.
• Commensurate with the offense.
• Must be equal, certain, and correctional.
• Personal and Legal: should be one to be punished, in accordance with law.

Gravity of Penalties

• Death Penalty
• Reclusion Perpetua: life imprisonment, a term of 20-40 years.
• Reclusion Temporal: 12 years and 1 day to 20 years.
• Prision Mayor: 6 years and 1 day to 12 years.
• Prision Correctional: 6 months and 1 day to 6 years.
• Arresto Mayor: 1 months and 1 day to 6 months.
• Arresto Menor: I day to 30 days
• Bond to Keep the Peace: discretionary on the part of the court.

Philippine Prison System

• Prison: An institution for the imprisonment of persons convicted of serious crimes.
• Prisoner: A person who is under the custody of lawful authority or a person convicted to serve in a penal institute.

Historical Setting of Philippine Prison System

• The Philippines was influenced by Roman law through Spain and other European countries.
• The Spanish Civil Code which introduced the "Kodigo Penal" became effective on December 7, 1889, (now Revised Penal Code).
• Tribal traditions, customs, and practices affected the Pre-Spanish Philippines, including Code of Kalantiao and Maragtas Code.

Early Prisons in the Philippines

• In 1847, the first Bilibid Prison was constructed.
• In 1956, Manila exchanges it's property with the prison bureau. The old Bilibid Prison is now the Manila city jail.

Classifications of Prisoner

• Detention Prisoner:
  • Detained for investigation or awaiting trial.
  • Detainee in jail.
  • They are prisoners under the Courts jurisdiction.
• Sentenced Prisoners:
  • Committed to jail to serve sentence after final conviction.
  • Prisoners under jurisdiction penal institutions.
• Prisoners who are on safekeeping: Detained to protect the community (mentally deranged, or insane).

Classification of Sentenced Prisoners: (PD 29)

• Insular or National Prisoners:
  • Sentenced to suffer imprisonment to the term of 3 years and 1 day in prison.
  • Cannot file bond for temporary liberty.
• Provincial Prisoners:
  • Sentenced to suffer a term of imprisonment from 6 months 1 day to 3 years to fine of more than 1,000 pesos.
  • Detained and awaiting RTC investigations.
• City Prisoners:
  • Those sentenced to imprisonment form 1 day to 3 years with fine of 1,000 pesos.
  • Those detained where cases are filed with the MTC and RTC.
• Municipal Prisoners: Confined in Municipal jails with imprisonment from 1day to 6 months and their cases pending.

Classification of Prisoner According to Degree of Security

• A special group of prisoners is composed of incorrigible, attractable, and dangerous persons who are a source of constant disturbances.
• Maximum Security Prisoners:
  • Poses a danged to security.
  • Constant troublemakers who aren't as dangerous as the maximum security.
  • Movements are restricted.
  • Includes those sentenced to serve 20+ years or those under review of the Supreme Court AND those who are criminally insane.
• Medium Security Prisoners:
  • Cannot be trusted in open conditions.
  • Pose lesser security.
  • Maybe used to working outside the walls of the prison.
  • It Includes prisoners whose minimum sentence is less than 20 years AND prisoners with life sentences serving more than 10 years in maximum-security prison.
• Minimum Security Prisoners:
  • Known to be reasonably trusted in open conditions.
  • Includes those who report back without guard.

Bureau of Corrections

• The Bureau of Prisons was renamed Bureau of Corrections under Executive Order 292 during Aquino Administration.
• Headed by Director of Prisons.

Coverage of the Bureau of Corrections

• National Bilibid Prisons: (Muntinlupa, Rizal)
  • New Bilibid Prisons (Main Building)
  • Camp Sampaguita
  • Camp Bukang Liwayway
• Reception and Diagnostic Center (RDC)
• Correctional institution for Women (Mandaluyong)

The Penal Colonies

• Sablayan Penal Colony and Farm (Occ. Mindoro)
• Iwahig Penal Colony and Farm ( Palawan)
• Davao Penal Colony and Farm ( Central Davao)
• San Ramon Penal Colony and Farm (Zamboanga)
• Ilo-ilo Penal Colony and Farm (Ilo-Ilo Province)
• Leyte Regional Prison ( Abuyog Leyte)

Bureau of Jail and Penology

• Jail: A place for locking up people who have short sentences, or are convicted of felonies by a competent court.
• Types of Jails:
  • Lock-up Jails – used for temporary confinement.
  • Ordinary Jails - used to detain a convicted criminal to serving for term of 3 years.
  • Workhouses Jail Farms or Camp are facilities for custody offenders serving shorts sentences.
• It operates as a line bureau under the Department of the Interior and Local government (DILG).

Duties and Responsibilities

• Warden: Is responsible for the direction, coordination, and control of the jail.

• Units:

  • Intelligence and investigation Team: gathers, collates and submits intelligence information. -Jail inspectorate: Inspect jail and submit reports to the warden.
  • Public Relation Office: Maintain public relation to obtain the necessary and adequate public support.

• Assistant Warden: Undertakes the development of systematic of treatment. Chairman of the classification Board and Disciplinary Board.

Prison and Jail Administration

• Personnel Management Branch which is an assistant of personnel, Procedures of selection, Preparation of personnel reports, individual record file.
• Records and Statistics Branch – to keep and maintain booking sheets and arrest reports and statistical data of inmate records.
• Property and Supply Branch – to insure the safe keeping of supplies and the equipments.
• Budget and Finance Branch – to take charge of financial such as the budgeting, accounting.
• Mess Service Branch – to make charge of taking care the inmates.
• General Service Branch – to take care to maintain the jail.
• Mittimus Computing Branch – tasked to receive court decisions and compute date of the sentences.

Security Groups

• The security groups provides its inmates a secure and control and enforce jail of prison. security
• Escort Platoon – to escort inmate transfer to other penal institutions, receive or distribute court summons and other documentation needed.
• Security Platoon – responsible for the overall jail compound guard and shifts.

Rehabilitation Purposes Groups

• They give inmates services and assistance with there problems.
• Medical and Health Services Branch – Provides medical inmates and treatment of sick inmates.
• Work and Education therapy Services – Take charge the job and the needs for program of the inmates by giving them job incentive for there jobs.
• Socio- Cultural Services – To take care of inmates via social cases by making interviews and free legal services etc.
• Chaplaincy Services – Takes charge of the religious and moral by there religious needs.
• Guidance and Counseling Services – help inmates solve the programs and constructive programs.

Reception and Diagnostic Center (RDC)

• a special unit of prison where new prisoners undergo diagnostic examination
• The Quarantine Cell and Unit: prisons where prisoner is fully physical exanimated including xrays and immunity.

The Admission Procedures in Prison

• Receiving.
• Checking of Commitment of Papers.
• Searching - frisking prisoner for weapons
• briefing prisoner by his rules and regulations.

The Treatment Programs

• The institution-Based Treatment Programs
• Community-Based Treatment programs
• Institution Education
• Classes of Prison Education

Objective of Prison Education

• Return inmates to a good lifestyle.
• Conduct as good citizens and be honest.
• Develop skills to be able to survive the streets.

Classes of Prison Education

• Academic Education
• Vocational Education
• Physical Education

The Institutional Custody, Security and Control

• Diversification and flexible types of plants for more effective custody.
• Prison Security, Custody and Control -SECURITY -PRISON DIPLINE -PREVENTIVE DISCIPLINE
• DISTRICT JAIL- Located at the vicinity of he court, 10 or less inmates monthly holds inmates who serves a sentence of 3 years or less, BJMP supervised.