The New Bilibid Prison is the national penitentiary in the country. It comprises of three camps "Maximum Security Camp, Medium Security Camp (Camp Sampaguita) and Minimum Security Camp (Camp Bukang Liwayway). It has approximately 16,000 inmates "more than 10,000 in the Maximum, about 5,000 in the Medium and 500 more in the Minimum. The Maximum compound, surrounded with tall and thick walls, houses those sentenced with the death penalty down to 20 years of imprisonment. It has in it a hospital, informal school, playing courts, market place, handicraft shops and churches for almost all religions and sects. The administration offices of the Bureau of Corrections are located here. The Medium compound, enclosed with two layers of tall barb-wire fences, is the abode for those sentenced below 20 years, juvenile offenders and the new prisoners, who are to undergo quarantine at the Reception and Diagnostic Center. Schools from elementary to college, a Samsung manufacturing plant, playing courts, market place, handicraft shops and churches can also be seen here. The Minimum compound, though encircled with low barb-wire fences but has an open gate, is the residence of inmates above 65 years old and those who have less than three years of prison service. They have a lone chapel inside the compound.
Life in the prison camp is like an ordinary life somewhere. Some go to school, some work for a living, others praise God and the rest, play and hang around. One prisoner asked me, "Name anything you can find outside the camp that we don't have in here?- I was disappointed with my answers and shocked by the revelations. They have everything though some are absolutely forbidden like drugs, alcoholic drinks, cellphones, deadly weapons and even guns! The existence of 12 gangs, or "pangkat- as they are commonly known, sets the insecurity inside the camp. These are not new realities.
