Challenges to inmate classification in a developing country setting: implications for context-based inmate classification schemes

ABSTRACT

Inmate classification is a key aspect of prison management and inmate programming. It guides inmate housing assignment, level of supervision and control, and inmate programme placement. The Philippines formally incorporated these principles to modernise its prisons. However, structural, organisational, and cultural challenges posed barriers to successful implementation. Utilising qualitative data gathered through interviews and focus group discussions with prison personnel, inmates, and volunteers in a major prison in the Philippines, this paper investigates the practices that impact on inmate classification and how these affect housing assignment, levels of supervision and control, and inmate programming. Implications towards developing an integrated correctional management in the Philippines, and other similarly situated countries, are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Inmate classification
• inmate shared governance
• normalisation
• prison community
• Philippine prisons

Notes

1. All female inmates are housed in the Correctional Institute for Women, a facility that is managed separately from the NBP.

2. The prison manual states that inmates must be placed in the Maximum Security Compound if they are (a) sentenced to 20 years or more, (b) recidivists, (c) have pending cases, or (d) have appealed cases. Otherwise, they are placed in the Medium Security Compound. Inmates nearing the completion of their sentences are transferred in the Minimum Security Compound.

3. All names are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raymund E. Narag

Raymund E. Narag, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His research interests include comparative criminology, corrections, and the role of culture in the criminal justice system. His recent work has appeared in The Prison Journal and Criminal Justice and Behavior.

Jordan Galehan

Jordan Galehan is a current PhD student in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her research interests include correctional issues, inmate programming, offender reentry, and desistance. Currently, she is working on research involving inmate classification and inmate housing.

Clarke Jones

Clarke Jones, PhD, is a visiting fellow at the Regulatory Institution Network, Australian National University. Before moving to academia, he worked in several areas of national security for the Australian government. His current research interests include prison gangs and the effects of the prison environment on the disengagement and deradicalisation of terrorist inmates in the Philippine and Indonesian correctional systems.