Less ‘sleeping like sardines’, as Philippines adopts Nelson Mandela Rules for jails

The Nelson Mandela Rules, which are named after the former South African president who was unjustly incarcerated for 27 years, are playing a key part in prison and penal reform in the Philippines.

Ahead of Nelson Mandela International Day marked annually on 18 July, here’s what you need to know about the Rules and what is being done to implement them.

Humane treatment

The Rules aim to ensure that all prisoners are treated with respect and dignity and are not discriminated against. The environment in which these prisoners are accommodated is central to this requirement.

The Philippines ranks alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Uganda in terms of prison congestion with detainees living in chronically overcrowded and cramped facilities.

At Manila City Jail, some 3,200 men are accommodated in a facility with a capacity of 1200, with men “sleeping like sardines,” according to the Supreme Court’s Associate Justice Maria Filomena Singh, a situation she has described as “inhumane.”

The jail, which houses mainly people in pre-trial detention, was built in 1867. Temperatures in the crowded dormitories can reach up to 40 centigrade and so do not meet the Rules requirements of “due regard being paid to climatic conditions and particularly to cubic content of air, minimum floor space, lighting, heating and ventilation.”

Healthcare

While Manila City Jail is the symbol of what needs changing in the Philippines, progress is being made in other jails especially in terms of healthcare, a central focus of the Rules which stipulate that “prisoners should enjoy the same standards of health care that are available in the community, and should have access to necessary health-care services free of charge without discrimination on the grounds of their legal status.” 

Safety and dignity

Maintaining safe and secure conditions for both prisoners and prison staff – as well as implementing disciplinary measures that respect human dignity and avoid torture or other forms of inhumane treatment – are other key elements of the Nelson Mandela Rules.

The Philippines’ newest prison, the Marawi City Jail in Mindanao, was built with the Rules in mind and inaugurated in May 2024. It replaces the city’s old jail which was destroyed in a five-month Islamist insurgency in 2017.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which is the official custodian of the Rules, provided technical support to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology during the process of establishing the right conditions for the new facility including reviewing the infrastructure design, setting up a library, security training and prisoner assessment.

Education

The jail aims to support the social reintegration of prisoners by providing education, vocational training, and other programmes, as highlighted in the Rules.

Instructors from the Mindanao State University (MSU) are to teach classes and students from the law school there, will support prisoners with their case work which could help to expedite the legal process.

Prisoners can also consult legal texts in the newly stocked library, as well as read the Rules in Tagalog, one of the most widely spoken languages in the Philippines.

The newly designated court in the facility, in which the first hearing took place at the end of June, will also contribute to the quicker resolution of cases. 

It is expected that resolving cases more quickly will prevent the jail from becoming overcrowded. “Hopefully the influx of prisoners will equal those who are leaving,” said Renato Reynaldo Roales, a UNODC National Programme Officer based in Mindanao.

The first 50 prisoners were transferred to the new jail in June and four were released after appearing at in-prison court hearings during that same week.

Marawi City Jail is expected to become the blueprint for modern detention facilities across the Philippines as the country continues to reform its justice and penal system.

UNODC’s Renato Reynaldo Roales said that more prisoners, both awaiting trial and those already convicted, will benefit from the introduction of the Nelson Mandela Rules, according to the principle that “the only thing that a prisoner should be deprived of is his or her liberty.