Characterization of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at Nueva Vizcaya Provincial Jail

In the Philippines, provincial jail system was first established in 1910 under the American regime supervised and controlled by the provincial government and headed by the Provincial Jail Warden. The provincial jail of Nueva Vizcaya is located in the town of Bayombong. The jail offers many programs for Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) to make them busy and productive during their stay in jail. At the government-managed provincial jail, the PDLs use their precious time to pursue their elementary and secondary education while engaging in other livelihood projects. The provincial jail entered into a partnership with the Department of Education to conduct the Alternative Learning System program among the PDLs wiling to pursue their education. The PDLs received certificates and diplomas bearing the DepEd seal signed by the Secretary of Education, certifying their competencies as comparable to graduates of the formal school system. The ALS beneficiaries were also recognized by the DepEd and the provincial government after passing the Accreditation and Equivalency Test for elementary and high school levels. There were fifty four (54) respondents available during the schedule of data gathering. The researcher was the given the chance to interview some of the PDLs for both male and female. Findings of the study on age, most of the respondents are young with an age brackets of 18–27 years old, majority are males, single, Roman Catholic, reached/finished high school, self-employed, committed crimes against person and were arraigned, attended 1–5 times court hearings, been in jail for almost 1month-6 months and most claimed that they were alleged suspects of the crimes charged against them. It is therefore concluded that the respondents’ profile are similar despite the fact that PDLs came from all walks of life as observed on the data gathered.