Characterization of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at Tuguegarao District Jail, Tuguegarao City, Cagayan

The creation of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology under the Department of the Interior and Local Government through Republic Act 6975 in 1990 paved way on the creation of more jails efficiently manned by professionals, qualified, trained and committed jail personnel all over the country. This study was limited on the characterization of PDLS committed at the Tuguegarao District Jail. A total of three hundred sixteen (316) PDLs were used as respondents of the study representing 100 percent of its total population. The researchers made used of a questionnaire to gather the needed data from the respondents. Interview was also conducted in order to verify some vague answers on the questionnaire. Results of the study on age, most of the respondents are young with an age bracket of 28–37 years old, majority are males, and are single, they belong to the Roman Catholic, most reached and finished high school and during the commission of the crimes, many were self-employed. In terms of the crimes committed by the PDLs, most have crimes against special laws, majority of them were already arraigned, and mostly have attended 6–10 hearings, have stayed in jail for one year one day to two years. In addition, most circumstance noted was “alleged suspect”. It can be concluded that the profile of respondents, the classification of crimes charged against them, the circumstances that led to its commission must be given attention by the concerned agencies especially the five pillars of our criminal justice system in order to lessen the commission of crimes and not to prolong their stay of PDLs in jail for them to go back immediately into the mainstream of the community and live a normal life.