Congestion in jails across the country went down from 296 percent last May to 286 percent last September, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The department said this in a statement on Thursday, after the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), an attached agency of the DILG, held its third-quarter management conference in Laurel, Batangas.
‘The DILG lauded the BJMP for reducing the national jail congestion rate by 10 percent, from 296 percent in May to 286 percent in September 2025, marking a significant step toward more humane and reformative jail management,’ the department noted.
The DILG further said more than 69,000 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) were released with paralegal assistance from January to September 2025.
Additionally, over 84,000 PDLs had their sentences reduced through the good conduct time allowance program.
More than 27,000 of them received the time allowance by pursuing a vocational degree or educational certificate, or by teaching their fellow inmates, the DILG said.