OVERVIEW

As one of the five pillars of the Criminal Justice System, the BJMP was created to address growing concern of jail management and penology problem. Primarily, its clients are detainees accused before a court who are temporarily confined in such jails while undergoing investigation, waiting final judgement and those who are serving sentence promulgated by the court 3 years and below.

As provided for under R.A. No. 6975, the Jail Bureau is mandated to take operational and administrative control over all city, district and municipal jails which number at 1,132. Of this number, only 417 comprising two (2) female dormitory, two(2) youth centers, 152 district jails, 84 city jails and 177 municipal jails are fully manned by the Jail Bureau, leaving 63% or 715 jails still being manned by the PNP.

At present there are only 6,976 uniformed and non-uniformed BJMP personnel. In terms of jail population, however, 59,639 inmates are housed in BJMP-manned jails, while only 1,529 are with the PNP-manned jails.

The Bureau has four major areas of rehabilitation program, namely: Livelihood Projects, Educational and Vocational Training, Recreation and Sports, and Religious/ Spiritual Activities. These were continuously implemented to eliminate the offenders' pattern of criminal behaviour and to reform them to become law-abiding and productive citizens.

Although the workplace of the Jail Bureau is confined inside the portals of jail to safeguard inmates, nonetheless, the Bureau has an inherent function of informing the public of jail operations and other matters concerning the corrections pillar of the Philippines. Coincidentally, being a new and growing Bureau, BJMP aims to keep the public abreast of information regarding jail management and penology.