BuCor Backs Proposed Detention Alternatives for Elderly, Ill Inmates

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) said it supports the Supreme Court’s (SC) proposed use of house arrest, medical confinement and community-supervised release as alternatives to detention, particularly for elderly and seriously ill prisoners. BuCor Director General Gregorio Pio P. Catapang, Jr. said the bureau is “very much on the same page” with the SC on the proposed alternatives. “This is no different from our proposal granting medical parole to elderly persons deprived of liberty aged 70 and above, those who are terminally ill, and individuals who are severely incapacitated,” Mr. Catapang said in a statement on Thursday. Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo raised the proposed alternatives in his speech at the Justice Sector Coordinating Council summit on Monday, saying the High Court is amending its rules and procedures on detention and release to include house arrest, medical confinement, community-supervised release and compassionate release. — Mark Joseph M. Sanchez