CORRECTION NOTES

Chapter 1
 For Criminal Justice System purposes, the term correction, corrections and
correctional, are words describing a variety of functions typically carried out by
government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and
supervision of persons who have been convicted of crimes, these functions
commonly given through institutional and non-institutional approaches
 A correctional system, also known as a penal system, thus refers to a network
of agencies that functions related to rehabilitating convicted persons through
either institution-based or community-based corrections.
 The terminology change in US academia from “Penology” to “ Corrections”
occured in the 1950s and 1960s, and it was driven by a new philosophy
emphasizing rehabilitation.
 Most prisons became correctional institutions, and guards became correctional
officers.
 The philosophical view on offenders' treatment took an opposite turn in the
1980s, when the “get tough” program was labeled by academics as “The New
Penology”.
 Correction is a branch of administration of criminal justice responsible for
correction and rehabilitation of those persons, who are after observance of
due process, was found violated penal law by competent judicial authority.
 The ultimate goal of Correction is to reform and rehabilitate convicted
individuals and restore them in their prior status before the commission of the
crime, as law abiding citizen.
CORRECTION DEFINED

 Is that branch of the administration of criminal justice charged with the

responsibility for the custody,supervision and rehabilitation of those who
judicially found violated the criminal law.

 It is in a view of reorientation or re-instruction of the individual with a purpose

of preventing a repitition of the unlawful activities without necessity of taking
punitive action.
TWO APPROACHES OF CORRECTION

1. INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTION ( Institution-based Correction)

- rehabilitation or correctional programs take place inside correctional facilities or
institutions such as national penitentiaries and jails.
2. NON-INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTION ( Community-based Correction)
- rehabilitation or correctional programs take place within the community.
- this is otherwise refers to as community-based correction. Is this approach the
convict will not be placed or be released from correctional facility or jails.
COMMUNITY-BASED CORRECTION PROGRAMS

1. PROBATION
- Is a disposition, under which an accused after conviction and sentence, is released
subject to the conditions imposed by the court and to the supervision of a
probation officer.
2. PAROLE
- A condition release from prison of a convicted person upon service of the
minimum of his indeterminate penalty.
3. PARDON
- A form of executive clemency which is exercise exclusively by the Chief Executive.
Pardon maybe given conditionally (conditinal pardon) or unconditionally (absolute
pardon). For the purpose of non-institutional correction, it is the Conditional
Pardon with parol conditions is under consideration.

Agencies of the government charged with correctional responsibility:

 Bureau of Correction ( BuCor)

 Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)
 Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP)
 Parole and Probation Administration (PPA)
 Provincial and Sub-provincial Jail

IMPRISONMENT
- Imprisonment is the commitment to an institution, commitment to prison,
confinement, custody, detainment, detainment in custody, held in captivity, held
in restraint, in captivity, in custody, in jail, incarceration, internment, keep behind
bars, kept as captive, kept in captivity, kept in custody, kept in detention, kept
under arrest, locked up, put behind bars, put in a cell, put under restraint, sent to
jail, sent to prison.

CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATION OF THE GOVERMENT TO PUNISH CRIMINALS

LEGAL RIGHTS AGAINST UNLAWFUL IMPRISONMENT OR DETENTION

- One of the most protected rights of an individual is his right to liberty this is
expressly provided for under 1987 Constitution, which states, “No person maybe
deprived of lives, LIBERTY and property without due process of law.
 ARBITRARY DETENTION ,ARTICLE 124 , RPC
- Unlawful detention of a person commited by public officers or officials.
 ILLEGAL DETENTION , ARTICLE 267-268, RPC
-Unlawful detention of a person commited by private person.
The priscribed periods under Article 125 us follows:
1. 12 hours for crimes or offenses punishable by light penalties;
2. 18 hours for crimes or offenses punishable by correctional penalties;
3. 36 hours for crimes or offenses punishable by afflicted or capital penalty, or their
equivalent.
Unlawful Arrest underArticle 269, Elements:
1.That the offender arrests or detains another person;
2. That the purpose of the offender is to deliver him to the proper authorities, and
3. That the arrest or detention is not authorized by law or there is not reasonable
ground thereof.

CONSIDERED LEGAL GROUNDS FOR DETENTION OF ANY PERSON

1. Commission of the crime.
2. Violent insanity or any other ailments requiring compulsory confinement in the
hospital.

INMATE DEFINED
Inmate is a person committed to jail or prison by the competent court or authority
for any of the following reasons:
1. To serve a sentence after conviction
2. Under trial
3. Under investagation

GENERAL CATEGORY OF INMATES

1. Sentenced Prisoners (prisoner)

Are persons who are convicted by final judgment of the crime charged against
them.
2 .Detention Prisoner (Detainee)
Are persons who are detained for the violation of law or ordinance and has not yet
been convicted; and
4. Persons held for investagation or safekeeping \

When Judgment of Conviction in Criminal Case Becomes Final:

After the lapse of the period for perfecting an appeal which is fifteen (15) days;

 When the sentence has been partially or totally satisfied or served;

 When the accused expressly waives in writing his right to appeal;

 When the accused applies for probation.

CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCED PRISONERS

1. INSULAR PRISONER
- Is a person who is sentenced to serve a prison term of over three (3) years and it
is also known as National Prisoner.

2. PROVINCIAL PRISONER
one who is sentenced to a prison term of six (6) months and one (1) day to three
(3) years.
3. CITY PRISONER
-is a person who is sentenced to serve a prison term of one (1) day to three (3)
years.
4. MUNICIPAL PRISONER
- is a person who is sentenced to serve a prison term of one (1) day to six (6)
months.

INMATE SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

The inmate's security classification utilize by the BJMP is different from what is
being use by the BuCor:

BJMP CLASSIFICATION BuCor CLASSIFICTION

1. High risk inmates 1. Super 4.Minimum
2. High profile inmates 2. Maximum
3. Ordinary inmates 3. Medium

SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVES FOR DETENTION AND IMPRISONMENTS

1. Wider use of bail and other approved methods of released from custody.
2. Elimination from the jail and prison of those who should be elsewhere like those
mentally-ill and juveniles.
3. Payment of fines instead of imprisonment if penal law permits.
4. Executive use of Community-based Correction approaches like Probation, Parole
and Conditional Pardon.
5. Used of the delayed sentenced. This is a procedure, which permits an
incarcerated inmate to pursue his normal job during the week and return to the jail
or prison facility to serve sentence during non-working hours. In the Philippines,
delayed sentenced is not being applied.

CHAPTER 2
Punishment
HISTORY of PUNISHMENT
The earliest form of punishment was death, torture maiming and banishment. The
jail was introduced in Medieval Europe as a place of confinement of persons arrested
and undergoing trials, and for those convicted of minor offenses such as
drunkenness, gumbling and prostitute. Death corporal punishment and banishment
were still the penalties for offenses which today are punishable by imprisonment.
Later, convicted offenders were chained to galleys to man the ships of war. England,
France and Spain used the transportation system of punishment by indenturing their
convicts to penal colonies where they served as slaves until they completed their
service of sentences.
Definitions of Punishment
 Punishment is a means of social control.It is a device to cause people to
become cohesive and to induce conformity.
 Punishment is the infliction of some sort of pain on the offender by violating
the law.
 Penalty imposed as for transgression of law any pain, penalty, forfeiture, or
confinement imposed by the court for a wrong doing.

Early Codes
1. Babylonian and Sumerian Codes
 Lex Talionis (eye for an eye) based on Sumerian Code (1860 B.C.)
of King Hammurabi (1750 B.C.) -500 years before of Covenant. Enacted by King
Hammuriba, the sixth Babylonian King. The partial copies exist on a human-sized
stone and various clay tablets. The Code consists of 282 laws.

 Book of Covenant (1250 B.C.)

2. Crime and Sin - “Get right with God”, directive that the offender must make
peace with God through repentance and atonement. The early codes even the Ten
Commandments were designed to make the offender's punishment acceptable to
both society and God.
3. Roman and Greek Codes
 Code of Justinian (Sixth Century A.D.)- the legal code of ancient Rome; codified
under Justinian which is the basis for many modern systems od civil law.

 Code of Grco in Greece - Concept of public good is more important than

individual injury or vengeance
4. Middle Ages - Reformation was viewed as a process of religiou, not secular,
redemption. As in early civilizations, the sinner had to pay two debts, one to
society and another to God.

 ANCIENT FORMS OF PUNISHMENT: Punishment of Primitive Society

 DEATH PENALTY ( Capital punishment ) - Sentencing a convicted person to

death by means of hanging, burning, immersing in boiling oil, feeding to wild
animals and other barbaric ways.

Origin of Capital punishment ( Death Penalty)

Since the earliest societies, capital punishments which are often referred to as the
death penalty, has been used as a method of crime deterrence since the earliest
societies. Historical records show that even the most ancient primitive tribes
utilized methods of punishing wrongdoers, including taking their lives, to pay for
the crimes they committed. Murder most often warrants this ultimate form of
punishment. “ A life for a life” has been one of the most basic concepts for dealing
with crime since the start of recorded history.
One of the earliest written ducuments that supported the death penalty was the
Code of Hammurabi, which was written on stone tablets around 1760 BC. It
contained 282 laws that were collected by Babylonian King Hammurabi, including
the theory of an “eye for an eye.” Several other ancient documents supported
capital punishment, including the Jewish Torah, the Christian Old Testament, and
the writings of an Athenian legislator named Draco, who proposed the death
penalty for a large variety of misdeeds in ancient Greece.

TYPES OF DEATH PENALTY

1. Death by Sawing - This form of execution is most closely associated with the
reign of the Roman Emperor Caligula. The criminal was attached to an arch of
wood and then sawn vertically from the groin down through the skull.
2. The Garotte - Garotte was used in Spain for hundreds of years, the garotte is an
efficient means of execution by asphyxiation. In an earlier version, the victim was
tied to a stake and a loop of rope was placed around his/her neck. A rod in the
loop was turned until the rope tightened, choking the victim.
Conceived in the late 1700's this was one of the first methods of execution created
under the assumption that capital punishment was intended to end life rather than
inflict pain.
3. Premature Burial - this techniquehas been used by governments throughout
history to execute condemned prisoners.
4. Hanged, Drawn, and, Quartered - Used mainly in England, it is widely considered
to be one of the most brutal forms of execution ever devised.
5. Electric Chair - Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric
chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the
condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted
through electrodes placed on the head and leg.
6. Firing Squad - Is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the
military and in times of war.
7. Flogging - This method was used particularly to preserve discipline in domestic,
military, and academic setting.
8. The Brazen Bull - The Brazen Bull was a hollow brass statue crafted to resemble
a real bull. Victims were placed inside, usually with their tonguescut out first.
9. Wheels - wheels were adapted to many tortutous uses.
10. Public Humiliation or Shamming - The purposeof this was to put the offender to
shame. This was affected by use of stocks and pillory,docking stool, branding
shaving off the hair etc.
11. Banishment or Transportation - this is the sending or putting away of an
offender which was carried out either by a prohibition against coming into a
specified territory, or a prohibition against going outside a specified territory, such
as island to where the offender has been removed.
12. Public Humiliation or Shamming – The purpose of this was to put the offender
shame. This was affected by use od stocks and pillory,docking
stool,branding,shqving off the hair etc.

13. Bunishment or Transportation – This is the sending ot putting away of an

offender which was carried out either by a prohibition against coming inyo a
specified territory, or a prohibition against going outsidw a specified territory, such
as island to where the offender has been removed.

Brief Origin of Bunishment

The first major innovation in eighteenth-century penalty practice was the
substantial expansion of the use of transportation by England. Although it was
believed that transportation might lead to the reformation of the offender, the
primary motivations behind this punishment were belief in its deterrent effect, and
a desire to simply remove hardened criminals from society.