CA 101 – Institutional Corrections

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF PHILIPPINE CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM AND

HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS
LESSON 1 – PHILIPPINE THE CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM
 In the late 1980s, institutions for the confinement of convicts and the detention of those
awaiting trial included a variety of national prisons and penal farms as well as numerous
small local jails and lockups. In general, the national prisons housed more serious
offenders, and those serving short-term sentences were held in local facilities. The prison
system at the national level was supervised by the Bureau of Prisons of the Department
of Justice. The bureau was responsible for the safekeeping of prisoners and their
rehabilitation through general and moral education and technical training in industry
and agriculture. The bureau also oversaw the operation of prison agro-industries and the
production of food commodities. In 1991 the newly formed Philippine National Police took
over administration of local jails.
 The government maintained six correctional institutions and penal farms. The nation’s
largest prison was the National Penitentiary at Muntinlupa, Rizal Province, near Manila,
which also operated the Manila City Jail. The penitentiary served as the central facility for
those sentenced to life imprisonment or long-term incarceration. It was divided into two
camps to separate those serving maximum and minimum penalties. The Correctional
Institution for Women was located in Metropolitan Manila. Combination prison and
penal farms also were located in Zamboanga City, and in Palawan, Mindoro Occidental,
and in several Mindanao provinces. Prison conditions in the Philippines were generally
poor, and prison life was harsh.
 Some prison inmates were eligible for parole and probation. Before serving their sentence,
felons, who were not charged with subversion or insurgency, or had not been on probation
before, could apply for probation. Probationers were required to meet with their parole
officers monthly, to avoid any further offense, and to comply with all other court-imposed
conditions. After serving an established minimum sentence, certain prisoners could apply
to their parole board for release. The board could also recommend pardon to the president
for prisoners it believed to have reformed and who presented no menace to society.
LESSON 2 – THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM OF THE PHILIPPINES
The criminal justice system, essentially, is the system or process in the community by which crimes
are investigated, and the persons suspected thereof are taken into custody, prosecuted in court and
punished if found guilty, provisions being made for their correction and rehabilitation.
THE FIVE PILLARS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
I. The Community
II. The Law Enforcement
III. The Prosecution
 IV. The Courts
V. Corrections
DEFINITION OF TERMS
 Correction – it is the community’s reaction to a convicted offender. It is the fourth pillar
of the CJS and considered as the WEAKEST among the pillars.
 Penology – it is the division of criminology that focus with the philosophy and practice of
the society in its effort to repress criminal activities. It was derived from the latin word
“poena” which means “pain” or “suffering”.
 Punishment – it is regarded as an effective means of social control. It is the imposition of
penalty whether in a form of imprisonment and fine or both.
 Protection – it is regarded as a social defense wherein the society would gain protection
by putting criminals behind back.
 Deterrence – it is based on the belief that the offender when punished and inflicted with
suffering would learn the hard way.
 Retribution – it is a primitive form of inflicting punishment by way of personal vengeance.
In its imposition, the punishment would depend on the degree of satisfaction the aggrieved
of the offended party would obtain.
 Reformation – it is the latest justification resorted to by the imposition of punishment. It
is an attempt to return the law violator as responsible and productive member of the society.
 Rehabilitation – refers to the treatment by means of therapy, vocational training, education,
and counselling to help criminals to adjust to society and to avoid deviant social behavior.
 Indeterminate sentence – a sentence of imprisonment for the maximum period define by
the law subject to the termination by the parole board at any time after serving the minimum
period.

BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – ANCIENT TIMES

ANCIENT TIMES
 Traced back the beginning of prisons to the rise of the state as a form of social organization
and advent of the state, written language was developed – which led to the creation of
formalized legal codes as official guidelines for society.
1. CODE OF HAMMURABI – written in Babylon around 1750 BC, was the most popular
of the early codes. In this code, penalties for law violations focused on the concept of lex
taliones (“the law of retaliation”) where offenders were punished, often by victims
themselves, as a form of vengeance.
ANCIENT TIMES
The concept of punishment as vengeance or retaliation can also be found in many other legal codes
from early civilizations, including the Ancient Sumerian codes, the Indian Manama Dharma Astra,
the Hermes Trismegistus of Egypt, and the Mosaic Code.
 2. In the contrary, KING UR NAMMU issued a law that favored the imposition of justice
instead of naked vengeance. This code decreed the imposition of restitution and fines of
execution, mutilation or other savage penalties. It holds the principle that offenders can be
punished and at the same time the victims paid by making the offender reimburse the victim
for the value of whatever been taken or suffered by him as a result of crime. It carried the
restorative justice.
3. JUSTINIAN CODE – took effect on 529 AD and Roman Emperor Justin put that code
into effect which became the standard law in all the areas occupied by the Roman Empire
particularly in Europe. This code is a revision of the twelve tables of Roman law. These
twelve tables contain every crime in those days and specified the penalty for every offense
listed in the said tables.
The Twelve Tables (XII Tabulae) – represented the earliest codification of Roman
law incorporated into the Justinian Code. It is the foundation of all public and private law
of the Romans until the time of Justinian.
4. CODE OF DRACO – a harsh code that provides the same punishment for both citizens
and the slaves.
5. BURGUNDIAN CODE – specified punishment according to the social class of offenders.
- Introduces the concept of restitution but punishments were meted according to the
social class of offenders. The noble and middle class will pay the specified value
otherwise they undergo physical suffering as penalty while lower class and slaves
awaits death penalty.
6. THE SECULAR LAWS
4th A.D. – secular laws were advocated by Christian philosophers who recognizes the need
for justice. Some of the proponents these laws were St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
During this period, 3 laws were distinguished: External Law (Lex Externa), Natural Law
(Lex Naturalis), Human Law (Lex Humana).
EARLY CODES
Three main legal systems in the world according to chronological order:
1. Roman
2. Mohammedan or Arabic
3. Anglo-american laws
Among the three, Roman law has the most lasting and most pervading influence

BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – EARLY MODERN EUROPE

EARLY MODERN EUROPE
 Some Ancient Greek philosophers, including Plato, began to develop the concept of using
punishment to reform the offenders instead of simply using it to exact vengeance.
 Those who cannot afford to pay their fines were imprisoned.
  Romans – used various structures to house prisoners which include metal cages, basements
of public buildings and quarries.

EARLY MODERN EUROPE

Mamertine Prison – early Roman place of confinement which is built under the main sewer of
Rome in 640 B.C. Located within a sewer system, it contained large network of dungeons where
prisoners were held in subhuman living conditions.
Dungeons – room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground.
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Ergastula (ergastulum) – prisoners were often kept; primitive form of prison where inmates were
chained or forced to perform hard labor.
- It hold in chains dangerous slaves, or to punish other slaves.
- Usually built as a deep, roofed pit below ground level, large enough to allow the slaves
to work within it and containing narrow spaces in which they slept.
- The etymology is disputed between two possible Greek roots: ergasterios “workshop”
and ergastylos “pillar to which slaves are tethered”.

BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – MIDDLE AGES TO 17 th CENTURY

MIDDLE AGES TO THE 17th CENTURY
 Turning offenders into gallery slaves and chaining them together to row naval or merchant
vessels
o GALLEY – long, low, narrow, single decked ships propelled by sails, usually
rowed by criminals.
o HULKS – decrepit transport, former warships used to house prisoners in the 18 th
and 19th century.
- Abandoned warships converted into prisons, also called “floating hells”.
MIDDLE AGES TO THE 17th CENTURY
 Castles, fortresses, and the basements of public buildings also served as makeshift prisons
in Europe.
 Right to imprison citizens – legitimized the existence of officials at all levels of
government; have people incarcerated or even killed.
MIDDLE AGES TO THE 17th CENTURY
 Penalty practices in early Modern Europe consist of:
PHYSICAL FORM OF PUNISHMENTS
 1. Death Penalty – burning, beheading, hanging, breaking at the wheels
Beheading/decapitation – complete separation of head from the body; accomplished with
an axe, sword or knife
Breaking at the wheels – also known as Catherine Wheel or execution wheel; breaking the
criminal’s bones and/or bludgeoning them to death
2. Physical Torture – maiming, mutilation, whipping
Maiming – required damage to an eye or a limb, while cutting off an ear or a nose
Maiming or Mutilation – is cutting off or injury to a body part of a person so that the part
of the body is permanently damaged, detached or disfigured.
Whipping – a thrashing or beating with whip (tool which was traditionally designed to
strike animals or people to aid guidance or exert control over animals or other people,
through pain compliance or fear of pain) or similar implement
NON-PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT
 Social Degradation – shame or public humiliation putting the offenders on stocks, which
partially immobilized them while being exposed to public
 Stocks/Pillory – a wooden framework with holes for the head and hands, in which an
offender was imprisoned and exposed to public abuse.
MIDDLE AGES TO THE 17th CENTURY
 King Henry VII of England – decreed approval punishments for vagrants and penal
slavery to defend the interests of the dominant landlords.
 Bishop Ridley – first house of corrections in England was built through his initiative.
 Peter Rentzel – a private person, established a workhouse in Hamburg at his own expense
because he had observed that thieves and prostitutes were made worse instead of better, by
pillory
MIDDLE AGES TO THE 17th CENTURY
 Bridewell House of Corrections – located at Bridewell Palace in London, was significant
milestone during this period in penal history because it led to the establishment of other
correctional facilities.
- Built in 1557 in London for the employment and housing of English prisoners.
- Workhouse for vagabonds, idlers and rogues. They were given work while serving their
sentence. This was the seed of prison industry program which exist in many penal
institutions the world over up to this day.
MIDDLE AGES TO THE 17th CENTURY
 From the Middle Ages up to the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe, imprisonment per se was
rarely used as a form of punishment.
BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – DARK AGE OF CATHOLIC CHURCH
 The Dark Age of Catholic Church – wherein church can punish anyone
o Pope Leo I – the first pope who fully express approval for killing.
o Pope Innocent III – tried his hand like Pontius Pilate when it turned over heretics
to the secular authorities for punishment.
o Pope Gregory IX – through his Papal Encyclical “Excommunicamus” issued in
1231 that made part of Canon Law the burning of hundred of heretics.
o Pope Innocent IV – officially introduced torture to the inquisition.
o Pope John Paul II – reverses the culture of death and apologized for the past
intolerance and use of violence in the defense of truth.
o Prescillian – the first recorded Christian who was put to death

BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – MODERN ERA

MODERN ERA
 The 18th century saw widespread resistance to public execution and torture both in Europe
and in United States.
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
- 18th century is a century of charge, the period of recognizing human dignity.
PIONEERS:
1. William Penn (1614-1718)
- First leader to prescribe imprisonment as correctional treatment for major offenders
- Responsible for the abolition of death penalty and torture as a form of punishment,
fought for religious freedom.
2. Charles Montesquieu (1689-1755)
- A French historian and philosopher who analyzed law as an expression of justice;
believes that harsh punishment would undermine morality.
3. Voltaire (1694-1778)
- He believes that fear of shame was a deterrent to crime; most versatile of all
philosophers.
4. Cesare Bonesana Marchese de Beccaria (1737-1794)
- Presented the humanistic goal of law
 During the reign of Pope Clement VI, Michael Prison was established which was the
prototype of the reformatories for juvenile offenders. It is a proof that retribution and
repression is an abject failure in the control of criminality. This emphasized the rehabilative
concept and pioneered the segregation of prisoners and force silence to make the prisoners
contemplate their wrong doings.
BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – PENAL COLONIES AND PRISON SHIPS
 Transporting Criminals – an alternative to death penalty for many offenses in the British
Empire was the practice of transporting convicted criminals to penal colonies.
- Also done in the Americas between the 1610s and 1770s and Australia between 1788
and 1868.

BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – PRISON REFORM MOVEMENT

 John Howard (1726-1790) – Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773 who devoted his life and
fortunate to prison reform. He is the father of prison reform.
He recommended:
a. Single cells for sleeping
b. Segregation of women
c. Segregation of youth
d. Provision of sanitation facilities
e. Abolition of fee system
 Alexander Maconochie – superintendent of the Penal Colony at Norfolk Island in
Australia who introduced the Mark System. His progressive move was noted when convicts
after good behavior were given marks and after accumulating the required number, a ticket
to leave was issued to him. He was considered the “father of modern penology”.
 Manuel Montesinos – director of prisons in Valencia Spain; organized prisoners into
companies and appointed a petty officer in charge.
 Domets of France – established an agricultural colony for male offenders and confined in
cottages with an appointed house fathers to supervise them. It focused on re-education
rather than imposition of punishment.
 Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise – Director of English Prison who opened the Borstal Institution
for young offenders, the best reformatory institution for young offenders.
 Walton Crofton – Director of the Irish Prison in 1854 who introduced the Irish System that
was modified from Maconochie’s mark system.
 Introduced the progressive stage system. It is implemented in 3 distinct stages aimed to
lessen the period of imprisonment of convicts. The first stage would entail solitary
confinement for 9 months; the second was assignment to work and third is for preparation
for release.
 Zebulon Brockway – director of Elmira Reformatory which is considered forerunner of
modern penology; introduced innovational programs like training school type, compulsory
education, casework, extensive use of parole and indeterminate sentence.
BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – WOMEN PRISON REFORM
 Elizabeth Fry – reformer who attempted to bring about better treatment for women and
children in London prison in 1813. She was first to recognize that women need rights. She
was the one who proposed that WOMEN, not men, should supervise female prisoners.
Fry advocated female wardens for three reasons:
1. Prevent sexual abuse by male guards
2. Set moral examples of “true womanhood” for their female charges
3. Provide sympathetic ear for female inmates

BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PRISON

Jeremy Bentham (1746-1832)
- The greatest leader in the reform of English Criminal Law. He believes that whatever
punishment designed to negate whatever pleasure or gain the criminal derives from
crime, the crime rate would go down.
- The one who devise the ultimate PANOPTICAL PRISON
PANOPTICON – is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation
tower placed within a circle of prison cells. From the tower, a guard can see every cell and inmate
but the inmates can’t see into the tower. Prisoners will never know whether or not they are being
watched.
BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS – MEN BEHIND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CORRECTIONS
 Cesare Becarria – he is the proponent of Classical School of thoughts and argues that all
people are equal, crime is a juridical abstraction and punishment should be based on the
social need.
 Cesare Lambroso – he is the father of criminology and the proponent of Positive School
of thoughts and classified criminals into born, insane and criminaloids.
 Enrico Ferri – advocate theory of imputability and denial of free will. He focused more
on social, physical and anthropological factors in the explanation of crimes.
 Rafaele Garofalo – he stressed that crime would be understood by scientific methods in
understanding the traits and circumstances of criminal offenders.
 Domets of France – established an agricultural colony for male offenders and confined in
cottages with an appointed house fathers to supervise them. It focused on re-education
rather than imposition of punishment.
 Alexander Maconochie – advocated humane treatment of the convicts as opposed to
corporal punishment. His progressive move was noted when convicts after good behavior
were given marks and after accumulating the required number, a ticket to leave was issued
to him. He was considered the “father of modern penology”.