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Philippines: Give Inmates Job Opportunities |
| Source: |
mb.com.ph |
| Source Date: |
Sunday, May 06, 2012 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
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| Country: |
Philippines |
| Created: |
May 08, 2012 |
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Party-list lawmakers are batting for the institutionalization of job opportunities for convicts in various penitentiaries in the country to give them the chance to indemnify their victims and prepare for their eventual return to society.
Buhay party-list Reps. Irwin Tieng and Mariano Michael Velarde have issued a joint statement appealing to their colleagues in the House to support House Bill 4622 to pave the way for its enactment before the adjournment of Congress.
HB 4622, to be known as the “Prisoner’s Contrition and Contribution to Society Act of 2011”, seeks to make it a policy of the state to provide work to prisoners “in order to prepare them to become productive members of society upon their release from prison and jails.”
“Correction and rehabilitation are the basic reasons why offenders are kept in prisons. The introduction of work programs has been found to be an effective means for rehabilitating prisoner and reducing recidivism,” the two lawmakers said in the bill’s explanatory note.
Under the bill the Bureau of Corrections and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology will encourage convicts to engage in prison work.
Prisoners will be compensated for their work based on quantity and quality of their labor and the skill required for their performance.
“However, part of the earnings will be used to indemnify the prisoner’s victims for the harm done, and the rest will be distributed for financial support to prisoner’s immediate family and for his personal savings,” Tieng and Velarde said.
HB 4622 provides that prisoners 18-55 years old will be allowed to work and will receive not more than P200 per day.
The total compensation will divided in three parts: 40 percent for the reparation or compensation to the victims of the particular prison’s crime; 30 percent for financial support to the immediate family of the prisoner; and 30 percent for prisoner’s personal savings.
According to Tieng, the bill seeks to promote “security goals of the correctional institutions by reducing idleness.”
He stressed that allowing prisoners to work will contribute “to an atmosphere in which tensions and violence will be reduced.”
“Prison work will also help prisoners develop meaningful work ethics and gain valuable work experience,” said Velarde.
The party-list lawmakers explained that the work provided to prisoners will be one that is deemed within their ability and talents.
“Each prisoner shall have the right to engage in prison work for not less than forty hours per week,” Velarde said.
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Philippines: Give Inmates Job Opportunities Party-list lawmakers are batting for the institutionalization of job opportunities for convicts in various penitentiaries in the country to give them the chance to indemnify their victims and prepare for their eventual return to society
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