CITY OF SAN FERNANDO The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) wants persons deprived of liberty or PDLs in jails across Central Luzon empowered with the necessary skills.
The bureau at the same time cites the need for PDLs get ample health protection through the development and Covid-19 management programs.
In an interview over DwRW 95.1 FM's "Talakayan," BJMP Regional Spokesperson Jail Senior Inspector Mark Gerald Bautista disclosed that the bureau is partnered with Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and local government units to provide skills enhancement programs suited to the needs and capacity of the PDLs.
“Out of these skills enhancement programs, we are creating livelihood programs. The PDLs will be making products, and BJMP will market these to generate income for them. This is a very good start as they are given something to do, and they will have money because of the skills they learned,” he said, adding that tie-ups have been established with the Department of Education to provide elementary, secondary, and junior high school education to the PDLs through the Alternative Learning System.
Bautista said that the agency has intensified Covid-19 vaccination inside the jails with about 99.93 percent of the PDLs, and 99.29 percent of its personnel already getting the jabs.
This resulted to
zero Covid-19 cases because of the strict management of the disease inside jails and among personnel in the field.
He added that each jail unit in the region has a nurse to oversee health monitoring activities and check the health status of the PDLs.
This includes health record, general health check-ups to know their needs and isolation rooms for PDLs who are seriously ill have been established.
The jails are also providing inter-faith programs, indoor and outdoor recreational activities, guidance counseling, and therapeutic community modality programs, Bautista said.
Records from the BJMP showed that Central Luzon has a total of 9,437 PDLs in all 37 BJMP-manned jails, as of September 21. The facilities have a congestion rate of 345 percent.
Bautista said the figure has lowered to more than half compared to last year with the completion of male and female dormitories in the provinces of Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac.