[11] As an administrative detention center, there is no constitutional right to bail from BI–Bicutan,[12] and some detainees have spent upwards of ten years there, neither convicted of a crime nor deported from the country.

[10][28] A report by Howard Johnson, a BBC correspondent, on Victoria Derbyshire, noted the center's overcrowding, rat infestation, and "lack of basic facilities".

He, and the European Union ambassador to the Philippines, at that time raised the issue with Filipino authorities of the "overcrowded", deprived conditions Britons and other foreign detainees were being held in.

[30] During the 2020 Luzon enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, such bail became only marginally easier to acquire, as the overcrowded conditions provide a ready host for the virus.

[33] Similar accusations were made by foreign detainees to the South China Morning Post, including by one Greek man who alleged that bribes of US$100,000 were demanded from him.

[29] In January 2009, BI–Bicutan's then-warden Arsenio Samson and nine others were terminated for aiding in the escape of Korean fugitive Byung Kyu Choi, wanted in Seoul for allegedly embezzling ₩400 million.

[40] On 9 December 2014, American detainee Douglas Brent Jackson, awaiting deportation to the United States, sawed off the grill of a window and escaped BI–Davao, where he was temporarily being held instead of at BI–Bicutan as he had a pending estafa case.

[42] In October 2015, then-Commissioner Siegfried Mison said that some ten Bureau employees had accepted bribes of ₱1,000,000 from Korean fugitive Seongdae Cho, wanted for extortion in Korea, to help him escape BI–Bicutan.

[45] In March 2017, nine guards were relieved of duty for failing to prevent the escapes of fugitives Jung Jaeyul and Park Wang Yeol, wanted for murder in Korea.