BoingBoing and a friend recently posted some videos of prisoners at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (see below). However the fun doesn’t stop there, there are also videos of prisoners dancing to Queen’s Radio Gaga as well as doing what is known as the Algorithm March. Curious to how they would get inmates of a correction facility to do this, and to see if this was just an elaborate PR stunt, I looked up the logic behind this.

Apparently the dancing and rhythmic marching is all a part of Cebu’s complicated penal system, created to cut down on gangs and jail guard corruption. According to Cebu website:

Cultural, behavioral

Security must be approached not only physically but also from the cultural and behavioral context.

Inmates at the CPDRC are required to go through a workout regimen. While the goal is to keep the body fit in order to keep the mind fit, such may not actually happen if it is not done in a manner deemed pleasurable. Music, being the language of the soul, is added to that regimen.

Decadent cultures in jails are only spillovers of the culture outside. In approaching behavioral and cultural change, one has to look at the decadence of society to change the culture in the jail.

To do away with inmate and jail guard politics, rehabilitation must employ divide and rule. This is meant to discourage organization among inmates, where inherently gang culture exists.

Here lies the blunder. Penology or jail management in this country has never looked at gang culture in jails as one that actually propagates corruption and decadent culture. In most cases, jail authorities support and tolerate gang culture without considering that it actually impedes rehabilitation.

Gangs breed corruption and corruption breeds enmity and animosity between inmates or between inmates and guards.

Four components

To prevent familiarity between inmates and guards, security is done in four component forces: the Capitol Civil Security Forces, which conducts surprise greyhound operations and is tasked to inspect visitors during visiting days; the jail guards, who have direct contact with the inmates; the Provincial Security Group, which escorts inmates to and from court hearings; and the blue guards that check on the three security components at the entrance of the facility.

While the old practice of using jail guards won’t vanish, a four-tiered check-and-balance approach is used to plug the gaps for corruption.

To do away with corruption in jail finances, budgets are allocated and released directly from the Capitol treasury. Fund management, especially on food, is taken away from jail authorities.

Inmates, too, are not allowed to hold cash. Money is considered illegal. A system is provided where inmates can entrust their cash to jail authorities and have these converted to purchase orders. This is to ensure that money won’t be used for the purchase of contraband and to discourage gambling.

While I’m sure the stuff written on the site is meant to glamorize and validate the system, it seems to be working quite well. I mean come on, when was the last time you saw prisoners in America (or anywhere else for that matter) doing this:

“Thriller”

“Radio Gaga”

“Algorithm March”

It may seem silly, but it looks to have its merits. Though I really can’t imagine the inmates of Oz doing a prison yard rendition West Side Story or The Safety Dance. Come on American penal system, we can’t let ourselves be outdone by the Filipinos, get out them jazz hands!