Dancing Prisoners

When I think about prison, I think about how boring prison can be. After all you are spending most of your day in a cell. But in the Philippines, prisoners spend a good part of their day dancing.

In Cebu Detention and Rehabilitation Center, the prisoners are forced to dance. It all started when Garcia, the warden, first ordered the prisoners to march, but later the marching turned into dancing. Before the dancing program started, there was at least one violent incident a week. Now there hasn’t been a series incident since a year in a half. So I guess the dancing is working.

"Every able-bodied prisoner -- about 1,500 of them -- must dance" said Garcia. If they refuse to dance some of their privileges are taken away. The problem is does this violates their rights? Probably it is, he is forcing everyone to dance whether they like it or not. But it is working, so why not keep on doing it. Besides in prison your rights your rights are limited. Also laws for other countries may vary.

Some of the dances that they perform is Michael Jackson's hit video "Thriller", "Sister Act," "Jailhouse Rock" and "Radio Ga Ga." With the internet age people from around the world, can watch them dance on the internet. In youtube they received over 6 million views. So they practically became celebrities. There dancing is entertaining and funny.

Besides being internet celebrities, dancing helped them to become better people. The dancing makes them feel like celebrities instead of criminals. "Leo Suico, who's accused of mass murder, says dancing means "we don't think of bad things." Fighting back tears, he says the experience has taught him "love" -- pure and simple." So overall dancing makes the prisoners feel better about them selves. It teaches them self-esteem. Also they learn teamwork, at the same time they get exercise.

I believe that United States should follow the Philippines. It will help prisoners to feel like they are part of something. For those who don’t like to dance don’t commit a crime in the Philippines.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/dancing.prisoners/index.html#cnnSTCText