JUSTICE DEVOURING MONSTER: EXPLORING THE ROOT CAUSE AND REPERCUSSION OF PROLONGED PRETRIAL INCARCERATION ON REMAND DETAINEES

Prolonged pretrial confinement is a severe concern in the criminal justice systems of many developing nations. Inmates on remand spend years in jail while awaiting trial (Narag, 2018). In the Philippines, according to Schumacher (2017), lawsuits can take years to resolve, and since new cases are filed each year, caseloads have accumulated. Historically, Philippine courts have had backlogged dockets. Cruz (2014) stated that without speedy justice, crime and corruption cannot be decreased or slowed.

This study would like to explain the reasons as to why there is an evident delay and slowed down court proceedings in the case of Gensan Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) remand detainees and how would a lengthy and prolonged pretrial incarceration would affect them.

The study used qualitative and descriptive methods to determine the impact of protracted pretrial detention on remand detainees in General Santos City BJMP. This research focuses on General Santos City remand detainees. The study's core informants were female remand detainees who had waited 3 years or more in jail for a court ruling. The researcher employed KII and archival research to acquire data for the study. The researcher employed non- probability selection, namely purposive sampling, to select the remand inmate respondents. Using qualitative thematic analysis, the researcher analyzed KII data.

The results showed that the legal monster and the reason why there is a prolonged pretrial incarceration was mainly the delay caused by many judicial and external factors. (1) the absence of judge, (2) postponement of trial, (3) absence of case participants, (4) lawyer involvement, (5) case inhibition, (6) financial constraint, (7) reshuffling of judges and lawyers, and the (8) pandemic situation. These factors are uncontrollable disadvantages which the remand detainees in BJMP Gensan Female Dormitory face today. It also showed that prolonged pretrial detention indeed have a serious impact on the remand detainees in BJMP Gensan in terms of their economic, psychological and familial aspects albeit it a small prison community.

It is concluded that remand detainees in BJMP Gensan, despite prolonged pretrial detention, did not develop a criminal mindset, contrary to the hypotheses of this study. This is primarily due to the fact that it is a small prison environment with great potential for the effective implementation of rehabilitation programs.