Topic: Prison Reform
Country: Philippines
Delegate Name: Nevena Divic
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Philippines position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
Many different nations feel that it is their duty to improve the conditions of their prisons, while other nations feel that there are more important issues on their agendas. The Philippines is among the nations on firmly believing that it is their duty to improve the quality of their prisons as well as their conditions.
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system. There are mixed feelings about this idea, but the Republic of the Philippines is among nations to believe in prison reform. The Philippines as well as many other nations are attempting to change the penal system. Mixed ideas have got around, suggesting of changing back to earlier models.
The Republic of Philippines is working on improving the conditions. Prisons are way too crowded, and to resolve this problem, new prisons are being built. As the prisons get more and more crowded, the prisoners’ rights are less likely to be met because of the excess amount of people and the limited amount of supplies. But the Philippines is faced with one problem funding. It is very expensive to keep up with the costs, and due to this factor, the construction of more prisons is being slowed down. Due to the over-crowdedness not all prisoners are receiving enough food or the proper kind’s food. Disease is easily and quickly spread through, and once more prisons are constructed prisoners will be in less risk of catching diseases and less in risk of dying from unnecessary deaths. Another issue that the Philippines is working on is training the prison guards on how to treat the prisoners. Recently there have been reports of prison guards inhumanly treating prisoners, while abusing their basic human rights.
The solutions must take the rights of the prisoners into account. Overpopulation is a huge problem in prisons and it needs to be tackled. Also, a solution needs to be found to quicken the process of trials to limit overpopulation. All these efforts are going in to create a better prison system, but without adequate funding any of this cannot be accomplished.
