Philippines: Humane approach to incarceration relieves chronic prison overcrowding

At the Manila City Jail in the Philippines capital, prisoners lie in neat rows as they demonstrate how they sleep every night.

In male dormitory number 4 most do not have a mattress or even a bed; indeed it’s not even possible due to a lack of space to lie down on your back.

Instead, prisoners wearing their regulation yellow prison t-shirts curl up on their sides often using their immediate neighbour as a pillow as they struggle to get a proper night’s sleep in humid and cramped conditions.

Carlo* has been incarcerated and awaiting trial for six years. He told UN News on a visit to the jail that “men sleep in rows of maybe 200 to the end of the dormitory, and it’s difficult to move” adding that although “it is not comfortable, as years go by, I have become accustomed to sleeping on my side. People on the outside may find this depressing but comfort is a relative term.”

A recent unprecedented heat wave in Manila has driven the temperatures in this shared dormitory to over 40 degrees centigrade (104 Fahrenheit) at night making conditions even more inhumane for prisoners, with Carlo experiencing “constant insomnia.”

Manila City Jail was originally built in 1847 in the Spanish colonial period in the heavily built-up Santa Cruz neighbourhood and is one of the oldest prisons in the Philippines.

Today, its official capacity is just under 1,200 prisoners although there are currently some 3200 men accommodated there, an overcrowding rate which equates to a 168 per cent overcapacity.

The jail superintendent Warden Lino Montano Soriano has been tasked with reducing the prison population as far as his responsibilities allow. Since he assumed the jail leadership, he instructed his deputy “to check all the records of the prisoners, because I presumed that, many of them, already had their expected date of release.”

Progress to ease the overcrowding is slow but is moving in the right direction. In March 2024, 288 prisoners were admitted into the jail while 354 were released.

Red tape is far from being the main reason for overcrowding in detention facilities in the Philippines. A controversial justice policy which targeted drug dealers and people who use drugs, contributed significantly to the prison population across the Philippines rising from around 95,000 to over 165,000 between 2015 and 2021.

The Philippines now has one of the most congested prison systems in the world and with an overall occupation rate for pre-trail jails of a reported 322 per cent (down from 365 per cent in 2023) it ranks close to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Uganda in terms of overcrowding.

Many detainees must endure long periods of pre-trail detention before they have their day in court or are released without a trial.

The authorities in the Philippines have recognized that change is needed.

Justice Maria Filomena Singh sits on the Supreme Court of the Philippines and is committed to improving conditions in correctional facilities which crucially includes decongestion.

She has also regularly visited women’s jails: “These are mothers, these are daughters, these are wives and I relate to them,” she told UN News adding that “we cannot call ourselves a just and humane society if there are people living like this among us.”

There are a number of ways the authorities in the Philippines are lowering incarceration rates.

The release of prisoners aged 70 or above is being prioritised and others are able to reduce their sentences through good behaviour but also an innovative programme called Read Your Way Out which links a commitment to reading activities to an earlier release.

Significantly, efforts are being made to keep people out of jail in the first place, by reducing people in pre-trial detention and incarcerating people for only the most serious offences. 

“Of all those people detained in our jails, around 70 per cent have not yet finished their trial. So, they are there on preventive imprisonment even if their offences are not serious,” said Justice Singh.

“These people have not yet been proven guilty, and yet we treat them no differently from those who have already been convicted.”

Reducing payments to secure bail while waiting for trial has been another priority. Additional changes are being made to criminal procedures to keep people out of jail where they are “literally unproductive,” a situation where families which are dependent on the incarcerated person “are deprived of their support,” according to Justice Singh.

Prisoners can also attend court appearances online from certain jails which is also helping to speed up the typically slow patch to justice.

War on Drugs

Some 70 per cent of all incarcerated people in the Philippines are in custody for sometimes minor drug offences, the result of the previous administration’s highly punitive war on drugs.

While the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has supported moves to implement bail reduction, the priority release of elderly prisoners and the Read Your Way Out programme, it has also prioritized support to the Government to change the overall approach to drug-related crimes. 

“Drugs are not just a law enforcement issue, they are a health issue as well which should be seen through the lens of prevention and rehabilitation,” according to Daniele Marchesi, UNODC’s country chief in the Philippines.

“It’s a complex problem,” added Mr. Marchesi, “that connects the judiciary, the police and other law enforcement agencies on issues including health, drug policy and human rights.”

The complexity requires what Supreme Court Justice Filomena Singh calls “a whole-of-sector approach.”

The new approach appears to be paying dividends with the release of some 8,000 prisoners in the last year according to Justice Singh.

Hopeful for release

Carlo at the Manila City Jail is one such person who is hoping he will soon be amongst the growing number of released prisoners, saying “I love my life outside; I’m missing going out on dates and I’m missing movies.”