Conjugal Visit, Persons Deprived of Liberty, Jail Personnel, Legitimacy, Procedures and Duration of Conjugal Visit 

This study about conjugal visitation used a qualitative descriptive type of research. It was participated by 10 Jail personnel and 10 PDL of Baguio City Jail Male Dorm, 3 conjugal visitors if Male PDL, and 3 Psychologists (BJMP, Academe and Civilian). The unstructured interview was used in gathering the data using Key Informant Interview in the form of a written interview for the jail personnel and a virtual interview for the PDL, spouses of PDL and psychologists. The study was conducted at Baguio City Jail Male and Female Dorms in Baguio City from June to August 2021. As to the findings, the BCJ Male Dorm follows the BJMP Revised Policy on Conjugal Visit, which was signed in 2029. The Female Dorm has no conjugal room, but PDL key informants experienced conjugal visitation in jail. As to the legitimacy of the visitor, the duty personnel is tasked to check the documents to be presented by the visitor such as marriage certificate/certificate of cohabitation, birth certificate of child/children, family photograph and valid government ID. As to the procedure, it is the task of the duty personnel to inform the visitor of the jail rules and regulations during her stay inside the BCJ Male Dorm Facility. The desk officer shall verify the logbook of conjugal visitation. The visitor must voluntarily submit her belongings for inspection, and she shall be subjected to visual cavity and strip searches upon signing of a waiver. After which, the visitor shall be issued a visitor’s tag and advised to proceed to the holding area to wait her turn. The duration of a conjugal visit is one (1) hour only. This can be extended if no other visitors use the conjugal rooms. The room might be subjected to checking to inform the occupants if they went beyond the duration if the conjugal visit. The issues and challenges encountered in implementing the conjugal visitation at BCJ Male Dorm are the following: Inability to strengthen familial bonds, hindrance/barrier in developing/maintaining offense, result or factor in committing similar offense, source of contraband and the conjugal visits may be a factor or provocation that affects safety concern. The recommendations are the following: The BJMP shall allocate budget for the construction of a standard conjugal room for those with space, rehabilitation of existing conjugal rooms with no space limitation to conform with the standard, and/or mere rehabilitation of those existing without area for expansion; create a standard computer database of all conjugal visitors and concerned PDL to facilitate the scheduling, identification, and passing of requirements for the conjugal visit; to enhance its capability to have more units of gadgets as an alternative for face-to-face visits. The gadgets shall be used for video-calling of family members and lawyers of the PDL; to check and remedy the visibility of conjugal visitors entering and leaving the conjugal rooms for privacy purposes; to check the condition of the two conjugal rooms and have it repaired for the concerned users to have privacy; to adopt the action plan that detailed the identified problems, strategies to solve or mitigate the effect of the challenges; to conduct similar research about the effects of conjugal visitation to the immediate family of the PDL.