Introducing the Laya Calculator: Preventing Overstaying Prisoners by Democratizing Sentence Remission and Release Date Computations (PID015)

2.30pm – 3pm WEST, 23 April 2026 ‐ 30 mins

Room: Orchidée

Parallel Workshops

This presentation introduces the Laya Calculator (i.e. 'Release Calculator'), a public, web-based sentence remission and release date computation system developed by the UNODC in partnership with the Australian Government and the Philippine criminal justice sector. It levels the asymmetries between prison officials, and the wider public, on access to release date information, allowing non-corrections justice stakeholders, including prisoners themselves, to reasonably challenge continued detention. By democratizing access to release date calculations, the Laya Calculator project aims to curb arbitrariness in calculations on the part of corrections administrators, reduce the phenomenon of overstaying prisoners, reduce prison congestion, and improve prison health conditions and services.