THE Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) was recently awarded with a Gold Trailblazer Award after it introduced two innovative core processes to address the challenges that continue to confront the country’s penal system.
The award was given to BJMP and was conferred with the “Initiation Status” under the good governance framework, the Performance Governance System (PGS), established by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), a non-partisan, non-profit governance reform organization.
The core processes the BJMP introduced during a public revalida were meant to address issues in the country’s jails such as overcrowding and reoffending. The public revalida is a democratic exercise that validates public institutions’ completion of the four stages of the PGS.
Other institutions enrolled in PGS are the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of Health, among others.
The BJMP’s revalida presentation was led by acting BJMP Chief Jail Director Ruel Rivera. He said the BJMP embarked on its PGS journey in April of this year and positions itself “to meet the national standards for responsive and holistic jail management guided by global best practices.”
Nearly 100,000 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) were reintegrated into society last year, while over 27,000 became re-offenders based on the 2022 jail population. The lack of proper PDL assessment and care from jail to the community served as ‘the missing links in elevating [BJMP’s] service quality,'” Rivera said.
“In response to the growing public demand for accountability and service growth, we have thus redefined our Bureau’s core services into four: classification, safekeeping, development, and reintegration,” he added.
He explained that from its two-fold mandate to providing humane safekeeping and developmental opportunities for PDLs, the PGS framework led BJMP to formulate strategies to address the gaps and include classification and reintegration in its core functions.
“With PGS, we were able to create a strategy from the potential of our two-fold mandates. We can now identify the PDL’s custodial risks, hence resulting in reduced security risks [and] give targeted interventions to each PDL based on classification and assessment of his specific needs. Reintegration, in turn, serves as the logical development end-point of any individual impacted by the criminal justice system,” he said.
“Safekeeping and development remain front and center in our service delivery,” Rivera continued.
In his acceptance speech, Rivera extended his gratitude to external stakeholders, the panelists, and all of their employees.
“This achievement serves as a testament to the commitment of our Bureau to strive for excellence and continued improvement. It is a validation of the path we seek to traverse towards transforming ourselves, in the quality of our service, and for the whole BJMP family,” he said.