On the island of Cebu, there is a maximum security prison that holds the most dangerous criminals in the Philippines. In 2004, there was a riot in this prison, as a result of which a sufficient number of people suffered, but despite this, it was not easy to calm the murderers, rapists and drug dealers.
As a result, the rebellion was nevertheless suppressed, and the island authorities, in turn, decided on a very unexpected prison experiment.
The new manager of the Philippine prison Byron Garcia, having enlisted the understanding and support of the governor of the island and his sister in one person, created a completely new prison of a completely different type. Today, the prison in Cebu is not only a unique experiment for correctional organizations, but also one of the main features and attractions of the island.
In the Philippine prison of Cebu, prisoners every day ... Dance! These are dances of 1500 prisoners with synchronized movements clearly worked out in dozens of rehearsals. The imprisoned dancers needed an additional incentive - the audience, so after the opening of a new dance prison, they began to let visitors in here! At the entrance there is a sign asking everyone to hand over their weapons. Within the prison, even the guards go without firearms, because the level of violence has decreased so much that now there is simply no need for it.
The late Michael Jackson is a favorite musical artist all prisoners. The repertoire of prison dancers in most cases consists precisely of his composition. In this case, we can safely talk about the high personality cult of Michael Jackson. Also quite popular songs are good for everyone famous group queen.
The recidivism rate after being released from Cebu prison is minimal and really tends to zero. Many say that completely different people are coming out of these walls into society. The director of the prison himself, and now the governor's adviser on security issues, Byron Garcia is trying to make an opening or solemn speech at every concert.
Adds entertainment to dancing Orange color clothes. Now tourists from all over the world come to see the mass dances in Cebu Prison! Thanks to YouTube videos, prisoners have become so popular that now small groups dancers take part in the official events of the Philippine government. The first video has over 35 million views! Filipino stars also take part in the performances along with the prisoners.
A year ago, a music video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was filmed in Cebu Prison in the Philippines, which ranked fifth in Time magazine's top ten Viral Videos and has been viewed more than 14 million times on YouTube. The main choreographer of this production and the dancer in the foreground is Travis Payne. The dance is competently and professionally staged, filled with interesting director's ideas. And despite the fact that a huge number of dancers were involved in it, they all did an excellent job with the task.
“Michael saw the dancing prisoners, he really liked them. He watched the video between rehearsals and enjoyed it immensely!” Travis Payne says That is why, after the death of the great musician, the choreographer decided to fly with two guys from a backing dancer to a Philippine prison and stage new dance in which will take part maximum amount prisoners. Interestingly, it took only one day to implement the conceived idea.
On this moment Byron Garcia's invaluable experience is being actively studied in other countries. The director of the Philippine prison Cebu has cherished dream- to spread such dance prisons all over the world, because looking at the faces of dancing prisoners, it is simply impossible to recognize in them murderers, rapists or drug dealers ...
They are happy, smiling, singing and dancing - prisoners of the provincial prison and rehabilitation center in the province of Cebu, Philippines, a prime example rehabilitation through art.
(Total 18 photos + 2 videos)
1. The prisoners of this correctional institution became known when, in 2007, a video of their mass dance to the song "Thriller", which had 50 million views.
2. Prison Director Byron F. Garcia - the heir to one of the most powerful political families in the Philippines - came up with this idea when he was looking for a way to keep his prisoners in good spirits.
3. Songs and dances are an integral part of Philippine culture, so when Garcia put on mass character, when hundreds of people merge in a dance unity, he did not lose.
4. As soon as the video for the song "Thriller" hit the Internet, he quickly decided to use other hits in his rehab program, including "In the Navy" and "YMCA". And more and more prisoners began to take part in these mass dances.
5. There is a small women's section in the main prison, and women are also allowed to take part in the dances. However, some female roles the productions are performed by men who are not against dressing up.
7. Moreover, Garcia and his workers were accused of forcing their prisoners to take part in these dances, not disdaining to use brute force as an incentive.
8. During the interview, Garcia and his prisoners unanimously denied these accusations, but, as they say, what else could they say?
9. At a glance dance program Garcia has certain reasons: the prison is overcrowded, and the prisoners have to endure each other, which few people know about.
10. In 2007, more than three hundred prisoners were awaiting trial for murder. The gangs they ruled in the outside world thrived in the closed atmosphere of the prison.
11. Garcia needed to end these gangs inside the prison so that the prisoners would start life with clean slate when they were released. There is no death penalty in the Philippines, so most of the prisoners in these photos will eventually be released.
12. And yet, it's amazing to even think about what the reaction of suicide bombers, say, in the United States would be if they were told that they should take part in something like this.
13. The idea of the director of the prison was rather fragile at first. Many workers were suspicious of the magnitude of the event. And the prisoners didn't like the idea of wearing dancing shoes. One choreographer was beaten for his ridiculous shoes.
14. However, in the end, the idea took hold under the guidance of the director and his assistants, and although the first rehearsals took more than a day, after six months the experiment was a success.
15. Speaking of shoes: it was rumored that many prisoners who had to rehearse for hours in nothing but prison sandals complained of pain in their feet; however, when the video was released in 2007, it became a real hit, and many scratched their heads in bewilderment, marveling at the result of Garcia's experiment.
16. Admittedly, the sight of 1,500 prisoners dancing in unison couldn't help but make a splash on the Internet, especially considering promotion the owner of YouTube, which hosted all this.
17. Row after row of prisoners in bright orange overalls with capital letter P (from the word Prisoner - prisoner), dancing in one breath in unified harmony - what a sight! Not surprisingly, since then, tourists have begun to come to the prison to see for themselves. famous dances. Visitors can take pictures with prisoners and buy T-shirts to remember their visit. The rehabilitation program began to generate income, but, of course, one should not forget about the original high moral purpose of the program.
The prison in Quezon City was built 60 years ago on the Philippine island of Luzon. Initially, it was supposed to accommodate 800 prisoners, but the authorities managed to accommodate 3,800. Prisoners are forced to sleep in turns on the floor, stairs, hammocks made from old blankets.
This place is more like a can of sardines. Photojournalist Noel Celis "sneaked" into the prison to see what it looks like in reality.
1. The daily budget for one prisoner is 50 pesos (about 70 rubles) for food and 5 pesos for medicine. 
2. One toilet for 130 people. The stench is exacerbated by rotting garbage in a canal adjacent to the prison. 
3. Philippine prisons are the most overcrowded in the world. On average, they contain 5 times more prisoners than they should be. 
4. Prison conditions are getting worse every year as the police cruel war with crime. The President of the country stated that the main priority of his six-year rule is the elimination of drugs. (Photo by Noel Celis): 
5. In just 1 month, hundreds of people were killed in the Philippines and thousands more were detained. 
6. "Like sardines in a can" is the most accurate description of this place. 
7.
8. Washing and washing. 
9. A gloomy place. 
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11. 
A year ago engineer Yuri Kirdyushkin was detained at the Manila airport on suspicion of transporting cocaine. Until now, the Russian is in a local prison, the Metro Manila District Jail pre-trial detention center, where he is awaiting a decision on a preliminary investigation. In the event of a guilty verdict, the maximum sentence that Yuri faces is life imprisonment or the death penalty if the moratorium on it is lifted in the Philippines.
AiF.ru correspondent recorded Yuri's story about the life of a Filipino prisoner, cellmates, diet and pogroms in prison.
background
Last year my friend Ivan asked me for one favor: to help his friends from Thailand. It was necessary to go to Peru, bring from there to Bangkok a folk remedy - an essence from a cactus - for which acquaintances paid for flights and accommodation in Latin America and South-East Asia. Ivan then told me that he had already traveled along this route, there was nothing criminal in this. I have known him for a very long time, and I had no reason to doubt his sincerity. At that time, I worked as a senior manager of the sales department in a research and production enterprise in St. Petersburg. My responsibilities included sales to foreign clients. The salary depended on the volume of sales, and the sudden offer seemed attractive, there was an opportunity to see the product markets from the inside, to establish contacts with potential customers. I saw my own benefit in this proposal. However, doubts still crept in. True, when I expressed them to Ivan, he made it clear to me that the tickets had already been bought and, if I now refuse, I would have to return the money for them: 100 thousand rubles. And I flew.
In Peru, I met a woman who handed me several boxes of food in industrial packaging and two bottles of syrup. I saw exactly the same products with the same logos in local stores, so I didn’t even have the thought that there was something criminal in them.
A few days later, from Peru, I went to Bangkok via Dubai and Manila, stopping in several cities in Brazil, but I did not reach my destination: I was detained in Manila. When I saw my suitcase on the baggage belt, it was opened and wrapped with tape. I still don’t know if he was opened in front of witnesses and with video recording, as it should be. As a result, it turned out that there were 8 kilograms of cocaine in my suitcase. Although before arriving in Manila with all the original contents, my luggage was subjected to thorough screening at three international airports Latin America. No illegal content was found there. Two citizens of China were detained at the same time as me, their luggage also contained drugs, about 19 kg in total.
I tried to find Ivan to come to the Philippines and act as a witness in my case, but no matter how hard my family tried to find Vanya, he disappeared.
The fifty-meter cell contains 70-80 prisoners. Photo: From the personal archive
About the conditions of detention
I was taken from the airport to the PDEA detention facility, where I was held for a month and a half. There, in a cell of 35 sq. m, I was with 65 prisoners, some of whom were carriers of tuberculosis and HIV.
A month and a half later, I was brought to the city jail in Pasai County with a density of 90 people in a cell with an area of 40-45 meters, and only from there a week later - to the Metro Manila District Jail, where I am still.
There are several barracks, each with 10 cells. The area of the chamber is 50 square meters. m, and there are 75-80 prisoners in it. In order for everyone to fit in such a small area, special structures are equipped inside the chamber: metal corners with partitions that divide the room into rooms. It turns out a two-three-level system. More or less people fit, but still on top of each other. Many people sleep in the corridor, in the passage between the cells. There were times when there were more than 90 people in the cell. It's good that there is a fan that accelerates the air, and there is something to breathe. As soon as you move away from it, you immediately feel the humidity and it becomes hard.
To understand how life is in such conditions, I will tell you what happened this summer. The hottest time of the year here is from March to May, the temperature does not fall below +30 degrees, on average +35 degrees during the day. At this temperature, a transformer substation often fails, fans and lights turn off. And you find yourself in total darkness in the steam room: the temperature in the chamber is +50 degrees, high humidity and there is literally nothing to breathe. We had no electricity for two weeks. It is very difficult to convey in words what it was: the skin was covered with some strange blisters, and I was in such a state that I did not understand what was happening. Then the prison authorities opened the barracks at night, so that people who are very hard and who are older could sleep on the street, on the ground.
How is the day of the prisoner
The rise begins early in the morning, at 5:30, when the gates of our barracks open and the prisoners can get out into the territory and walk for an hour. Of course, this is if you were able to get out of your cell and get through the bodies of prisoners lying on the floor and hanging in hammocks along the corridor.
At 6:30, the food service begins, we don’t have a specially equipped canteen, we eat right in the cells. After breakfast, the detour begins: the guards come, close the barracks, count the prisoners. Around 8:30 a.m., the barracks are reopened and the prisoners are free to do whatever they want until 3 p.m.: time can be spent in the cell, you can - on the territory. But it’s hard to be outside: usually in the yard, prisoners cook food on an open fire, in order to build it, they often use plastic. You go outside and find yourself in a smoke screen. I prefer to spend time in my cell: I have a hut on the third level, I am more or less fenced off from my neighbors. Here I read, write, communicate with my family when I have the opportunity. Only a few use the Internet, because it is very dangerous: a phone in a cell is considered contraband. If they are caught, they will at least send them to an isolation ward for two weeks, and at the most, they will be transferred to a pre-trial detention center with a stricter content.
At 15:00 the guards come again: they close the barracks again, count the prisoners again, and then open the gates again until 19:00. Then we are again herded into the barracks, the door is closed. The next and last recount of the day is at 23:30, then lights out. And so every day in a circle.
There is a library with a good selection: many books on technical disciplines, management, finance, languages. I have about 20 books of my own, I recently re-read The Brothers Karamazov, I constantly read the New Testament. I also have a Bible in English.
IN free time You can also go in for sports, there are basketball, volleyball, gymnastics grounds, where there are home-made dumbbells, barbells, and more.
Most of the prisoners are people associated with the distribution and use of drugs, as well as those suspected of kidnapping. Photo: From the personal archive
About cellmates
Basically, my cellmates are people who distributed or used drugs. Here these substances are called shabu, here we call them amphetamines. Most of them are young people from poor families, people from countryside. In cities, they took low-paid jobs as taxi drivers or street food vendors, and in order to maintain the strength to work 18-20 hours a day, my cellmates began to use shabu. As a result, they were caught by the so-called "death squads" operating since last year as part of the anti-drug campaign. President Rodrigo Duterte. These guys did not resist the "death squads", so they ended up here, and those who did were killed. Locals say that since Duterte came to power, the number of arrests in the Philippines has increased fivefold. When I was brought here, there were 1,800 people here, and six months before that, there were 600. There are a lot of “fake” cases here, and this is now becoming clear more often, people began to be let out in batches.
The second most popular crimes are cases of kidnapping. A lot of policemen pass through them, I share my hut with a cellmate who was just a law enforcement officer. There are also four citizens of India in the cell with me, they have a “family business”: they kidnapped their wealthy uncle and demanded a ransom, and the uncle was able to get out and run away, sued them. As a result, the entire extended family was arrested.
Here people are divided by status. For example, if you are able to contribute an amount equivalent to 10 rubles a day to the common fund, then you are exempt from compulsory works by camera. There are a lot of people here, and periodically you need to wash, sweep, paint, take out the trash, clean the toilet room and fill the barrels with water. All these works are distributed among the inmates, but those who are able to contribute money to the common fund are exempted from them. Since I am a foreigner, I was immediately offered to sleep in a separate hut and make contributions for general needs in exchange for being released from work in the cell. I agreed, but in general, cleaning the camera is nothing criminal, it's the same thing that we do at home. On the other hand, if everyone cleaned up, then there would be no common money, and they are a very important part of the existence of our team: very often we need to share expenses.
Some cells contain both locals and foreigners. In addition to the Indians and me, there is also a citizen of Holland here, he entered just the other day. The only ones who live separately are the Chinese, they are in a privileged position. It is believed that these are people attached to syndicates for the production and distribution of shabu. They have a separate hut, and, as I understand it, everything is there for money, even to go out into the street, you have to pay. In our barracks, for example, there are 10 cells, each with at least 70 people, which makes about 700 people for the entire barrack. There are less than a hundred prisoners in the "Chinese" barracks.
The population of the barracks differs not only in social and national status, but also in sexual orientation. There are males here who do not hesitate to wear skirts and dresses, make themselves a semblance of artificial breasts.
About attitude towards foreigners
I am not the first and not the last foreigner here. Relationships are not built nationality, but, as in any team, by the way you manifest yourself. Suppose visitors came to you, brought a lot of food, well, simply because they come once a month or two. And it seems to the cellmates that they brought so much to a foreigner, but we have nothing. And there is always tension in the air. When a prisoner shares food, the prisoners immediately understand that the person is adequate, sympathetic. They see that you are eating the same food as them.
The guards are also good, when they see that you do not have contraband, they understand that you normal person, a hostage of the situation in which you find yourself, and you are not part of the syndicate, the mafia.
For the most part, people here sympathize, treat like human beings, understanding that it is very difficult when your relatives are 8,000 kilometers away from you.
About pogroms
HIV-infected prisoners are also kept with us, everyone knows about it. They are isolated only if the disease reaches an extreme stage. From there they do not always return.
You can also easily get drugs here, the prisoners use them to forget, to get intoxicated. As a result, once a month, one or two people in each barrack die from overdoses.
People are dying of tuberculosis, dying of homicide. The prisoners are killing each other. The territory of the camp is divided between different groups, within which there are their own laws and rules. And if a conflict starts between groups, it's wall to wall, with stones, sharpeners, etc. There was such a pogrom when we had no electricity for two weeks, then two people were killed. I saw it all with my own eyes, thank God, I managed to stay away from it.
After that, the administration strengthened security: they welded on additional gratings, conducted briefings with the guards, and also replaced equipment that was constantly out of order. There was a power outage, there was a pogrom with victims, and the leadership remained in their places. They simply referred to the fact that the equipment could not withstand the load, the heat, but in fact the management did not want to pay debts for electricity and restore the equipment.
About the Philippine judicial system
In general, the Philippine Penitentiary and judicial system are in running state. Here you can wait up to 10 years for a decision on your case. And it may turn out that the verdict will be acquittal. Imagine, a man sits for 10 years, awaiting trial, and they say to him: "That's it, go home, you are innocent." Here I saw people who spent 8 years in a pre-trial detention center, they were acquitted. This is due to the very limited number of employees in the courts. They receive little money and work very slowly. Suppose a prisoner does not have the opportunity to hire a private lawyer, he ends up with a public one, who has 200-300 prisoners under his care. Each judge handles up to 5,000 cases.
Thank God, the Russian consulate began to take an interest in my case, and I have my own lawyer.
About the language barrier
I communicate with my lawyer in English. About a third of prisoners, especially older generation they speak English very well. These are people whose parents remember the days when the Philippines was a US colony. But the younger generation, these guys from low-income families, do not speak English at all.
As for the Filipino language, in everyday moments I already understand everything that people want to tell me. I understand where it is written. I can tell where I come from, what my name is, how old I am, I can count to five. But speaking this language does not pull me.
Those who did not have enough space in the cell are forced to spend the night on the floor in the corridor. Photo: From the personal archive
About prison diet
The prisoners are fed three times a day. Breakfast is brought to us at 6 am. Most often it is porridge on rice, it can be sweet or plain, with some beans that are similar in taste and texture to corn, but this is definitely a legume. Sometimes they give rice with chocolate, called chapurado. This dish is more or less tasty, you can eat it. They often bring boiled noodles for meat broth. I can't eat this for breakfast.
Lunch starts around 10 am. First, the rice is spread separately. This rice is of the lowest quality, sometimes it comes with sand. The fact is that the dishes are prepared in a small kitchen, and 2,500 people need to be fed. Most likely, there is simply no time for rice processing and culinary delights.
The third time they feed at 16 o'clock in the afternoon. They can give a ready-made dish, or they can give raw fish. Curiously, we are not allowed to eat food from cans, because they can be made into a pointed object. But a gas cylinder, which can also be dangerous, can be easily bought at a local cooperation store. On it, in fact, raw fish is cooked. For money, you can afford anything.
Returning to dinner: they cook fish either in soy sauce or in vinegar. They break it down almost every day. For lunch, they can give vegetables on meat or chicken broth: there is such a jackfruit here, big vegetable, I have never seen it live, the taste is something between coconut and cabbage. The second type of stew is the national dish “banana heart”, this is an unblown banana flower, it looks like a big berry in appearance, but in consistency it looks like cabbage. It is chopped, boiled in chicken broth with the addition of coconut milk. The taste is very exotic. Between 4 pm and 5 pm, just like at lunch, we get rice first, then stew. It happens that they bring a clear broth, and something is chopped in it, they call this “something” papaya, but this does not at all look like papaya in our imagination. This is a vegetable between cucumber and zucchini, which is boiled with rice noodles in fish broth.
I think our entire diet is designed for the minimum calorie intake for an adult. But when you ate last time at 17 o'clock, and lights out closer to midnight, then in the evening you already feel hungry again.
About visitors
The provisions are brought to me by visitors: people whom I did not know before. By some miracle, the Adventist community found out about me, we call them Seventh-day Adventists, Protestants. The Philippines has them international university, and with him a small Russian community. One day she came to me family of Kamil Yalishev. They brought me food and things. At first, it seemed to me that everything was somehow strange, suddenly some people found me, came to me. I thought they were related to the people who got me here. And then I realized that all these are my prejudices and my new acquaintances are simply friendly and open people. It is customary for them once a month or two to visit people who are in pre-trial detention centers and colonies who have no other visitors.
About rethinking values
When I ended up in an isolation ward, in a foreign country, I experienced everything that I told, I realized how important it is to just stick to each other, my loved ones, and even be able to speak mother tongue. Of course, I'm lucky, I use the phone, I communicate, but I don't want to bother my friends. I thank God that I have a beloved who is always in touch, keeps in touch.
When I see news from home that one person beat another to death, it seems to me that people simply have not experienced something really deep, do not realize the true threats and the cost of life. I would like to wish people to put themselves in the place of others and value each other.
Yesterday we visited penal colony O. Palawan (Philippines) under the name "Iwahig". This "institution" is located 17 km from the city of Puerto Princesa. The peculiarity of this colony is that prisoners of light and medium regimes live, work and move freely around the territory of the village.
white beach
On the way to the colony, we stopped by a beach called "White Beach", probably because white sand around.
We met with one of the inhabitants of the local flora and fauna
And they set off along a long, terrible road several kilometers to the colony itself.
Colony of Iwahig
Just imagine, dozens of prisoners walking around a vast territory, practically left to their own devices.
They say that they are not fed according to the schedule, they have to earn their living on their own - by growing rice, fruits, etc. Or, by making money on tourists like us, dancing dances for them and selling handmade souvenirs.
I must say that the locals met us quite friendly, asking with curiosity what country we came from and how we like the Philippines. Quite to yourself funny boys.
But not all prisoners can roam freely. For a strict regime, there are separate buildings surrounded by barbed wire, where entry is strictly prohibited. As we approached the fence, we heard shouts of welcome at us, as well as the sound of a basketball sword on the pavement. Apparently, not everything is as dreary as we thought, even in prisons you can find a basketball court.
Well, you can put a tick on one more attraction of the island of Palawan. Personally, the place seemed rather boring and uninteresting to me, but what did I expect actually? Fighting without rules on the street?
The guide said that there is a swimming pool nearby with the purest water where we can swim. We jumped on our bikes and hit the road.
Balsahan Natural Pool
I completely forgot that the roads in the Philippines do not matter, just like in Russia. Therefore, here it is imperative to take a bike that can normally ride over bumps and potholes. Some Honda WRX at least (semi-automatic). But you can and something higher, especially for off-road.
We also had an S-class stool that jumped so much that every time I swore never to ride it out of town again.
A few more kilometers off-road and we were met by a sign "Welcome"
An interesting pool, built along the course of a mountain river, looked very clean and ... cold. It's not for you to swim in the sea!
"Stairs leading down to the pool?" - No, have not heard.
From blows to fresh water, the ears were terribly blocked and the water seemed to seep directly into the brain. Noticeable difference after sea salt. Someone jumped up and left, complaining about headache... Maybe even it was me, I don’t remember
Monkey for dinner, sir?
Getting ready to leave, the locals offered to fry for us ... a monkey. As it turned out, they were prisoners and they really earn their dinner as best they can.
500 pesos (~700 rubles at the time) for a monkey and they are ready to cook it in at its best.
The vegetarian part of our company immediately opposed such animal abuse! Still, the poor baby was kept in a bag tied with a rope.
We managed to bargain twice as cheap, and taking the monkey, it was decided to go in search of the nearest veterinary shop. It's good that there was a crocodile farm along the road, where monkeys were also kept.
The farm staff agreed to take the animal in, feed it and take care of it. And we were allowed to visit him at any time, even giving a certificate that the cub was accepted from our hands for the maintenance of the organization.
It seems to me that such a trick the prisoners get up all the time. It is unlikely, of course, that they eat them. Most likely, they just catch it in order to sell it to tourists like us, counting on their kind heart and love for his smaller brothers.
Nevertheless, with a sense of accomplishment and the thought of a good deed done, we headed home.
So another sunny day passed on the wonderful island of Palawan for me and my bride.
