The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has put emphasis on education as it urged its supervised-persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) to enroll and be college graduates while in detention.
BJMP spokesperson Supt. Jayrex Bustinera said college education is important for the PDLs as this would increase their chances of getting jobs upon their release from detention.
Currently, the BJMP has produced 19 college graduates of the 425 enrollees in the bureau’s 25 jail facilities hosting its College Education Behind Bars (CEBB) program.
The BJMP has 446 jail facilities across the country.
Recently, the BJMP hosted a graduation program at the Quezon City Female Dormitory where 19 PDLs received their diplomas in degrees of Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship.
Aside from this, the BJMP’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) garnered a total of 131,312 PDL-beneficiaries in both the elementary and secondary levels.
The BJMP noted that studies showed that one of the reasons why inmates tend to return to their old unlawful ways once released from prison is the lack of available sources of income, worsened by the stigma of being an “ex-detainee.”
BJMP chief Director Ruel Rivera has included in his priorities the “after-care” program which gives every PDL the opportunity to land decent jobs by coordinating with government agencies to accommodate them “not as a former inmate but as a qualified applicant.”