RECEPTION AND DIAGNOSTIC CENTER (RDC)

The Philippine national prison's RDC

Recognizing the need to properly orient newly committed prisoners to the Philippines' Bureau of Corrections, the Reception and Diagnostic Center (RDC) was created through the issuance of Administrative Order no. 8, series of 1953 of the Department of Justice. It was patterned after the reception facilities of the California State Prison. The RDC is an independent institution tasked to receive, study, classify all national prisoners committed by final judgment to the National Penitentiary. The first RDC facility was created in Building no. 9 of the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), Muntinlupa City. In a move to isolate the facility from the troubled maximum security wing then experiencing violence in 1973, RDC was relocated to Building no. 7, formerly referred to as Metro Jail of Medium Security Compound of Camp Sampaguita, NBP. To further insulate the newly received inmates from gang related exposures, the Center was transferred to the previous military command post adjacent the Medium Security facility where it is presently situated. The RDC is an entirely separate division with a highly technical function headed by the Chief of the RDC who oversees its independence in carrying its mandated tasks to receive study and classify all male national inmates committed to the Corrections by a competent court of authority. The Chief is directly responsible to the Director for all the activities undertaken by her personnel. Presently, RDC has a total of fifty (50) personnel, consisting of 21 civilian and 29 security officers, whose job functions are inter-related for a worthy implementation of its programs. The success of all prisons' rehabilitation process depends on how the RDC tackles the necessary orientation, diagnosis and treatment programs of the newly arrived inmates. Within the framework of staff and facilities, every effort is made to determine the inmate's strength as well as his moral weaknesses, his physical inadequacies, his character disorder, his educational, social and vocational needs. It is during the 60-day period, the critical initial contact between prisoner & his new environment that the primordial functions pertaining to care & treatment are exhaustively being carried out by the specialist staff. By the time the inmate is ready for transfer to any of the operating penal institutions, he has overcome all his fears and prejudices, has attained considerable adjustment, and is prepared to cooperate in the implementation of his treatment program. Being the initial stop of every national male prisoner, the RDC regularly continues to improve its rehabilitative programs. One such reform is the embracing of the behavioral modification modality. Primarily a program for drug dependents, the RDC Chief recognized the potential of applying the same principles to all committed inmates, thus the RDC was turned into a Therapeutic Community Camp on February 6, 2003. On June 4, 2004, the RDC also started to obliterate the gang marks of all newly committed prisoners in an effort to eradicate the gang system within the Bureau. On that same month, then Director Dionisio Santiago entrusted the administration of the Muntinlupa Juvenile Training Center (MJTC) to the RDC thru memorandum dated June 18, 2005. The latest achievement of the RDC was given thru memorandum of Director Vicente G Vinarao dated March 31, 2005 in which the RDC was tasked to execute administrative control over all other RDCs of the Bureau of Corrections. Therefore, the RDC has evolved into an institution that should be emulated. Its progress and current set-up has empowered the Center to take a positive approach towards modern day penology of rectification