Notoriously Overcrowded Prisons in the Philippines: How UN Supports the Government to Achieve Reform

It’s really not humane, Philippines Supreme Court Justice Maria Filomena Singh says of the country’s prisons, which are severely overcrowded. In Manila City Jail, for example, some 200 male prisoners sleep on the floor of their dorm without even enough space to lie on their backs. Work is now underway to improve conditions, notably in Marawi, the scene of a siege in 2017 that started in the city jail. There, a new facility has been built in cooperation with the United Nations to conform with the Nelson Mandela Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.