Prison Dance Rave

I realize I haven't been keeping up on my blogging duties as of late, and for that I am sorry. I don't have any excuses, I just really haven't had anything to write about, not that my content is usually all that riveting. But thank you to those who continue to come back. In the less than 3 months I've been posting (entries before May are posts from a previous blog I had) I'm well over 700 hits, which makes me happy. I wouldn't say I was stressing, but I was genuinely disappointed in myself for not being better at my blog as of late.

I hopped on youTube this morning to catch up on some videos andcame across a video of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC). Known as "the dancing inmates," you've probably seen them dance to Thriller by Michael Jackson, but I didn't know they have routines to several other songs including Low by FLO Rida, Soulja Boy, and Do the Hustle. Once a month, they have a public appearance, that, if you happen to be in the neighborhood of Cebu, Philippines, you can go to the prison and watch their performance.

I guess the point of this post is to more get your opinion of what they are doing rather than to showcase their amazing prison dance skills. Although its fun to watch, the CPDRC's recreation time is met with some opposition. A statement on the youTube page for Byron F. Garcia, a provincial security consultant with the Filipino prison system, and the uploader of all the CPDRC videos, says: "Some even suggest that these prisons don't deserve this humane method coz they feel there is too much recreation and inmates are to be treated severely. There are also sick people who think that dancing is a form of cruel punishment! Since when was dancing categorized as punishment? My fellow citizens of the world, CRUEL and VIOLENT forms of punishment are a thing of the past. If we make jails a living hell for the prisoners, then, we might just be sending out devils once they are released and re-integrated to society."

Let me now tell you of another e-mail I recently received about Sheriff Joe Arpaio (from my friend who is a prison guard by the way). Arpaio created what is known as 'tent city jail' to save Arizona from spending tens of millions of dollars on another expensive prison complex. He has jail meals down to 90 cents a day (the guard dogs consume about $1.10/day) and charges the inmates for them. He started chain gangs to do free work on county and city projects. He also banned smoking and pornographic magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but 'G'movies. He says, "They're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave... Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves."

We're basically looking at two opposite ends of the spectrum here as far as complaints go, in the former people think they are too nice allowing them to dance and receive mild fame with their public exposure. The latter is met with opposition that what they are doing is inhumane.

I'm kinda torn with where I fall on this issue. I like some of the ideas of 'tent city' but overall I think it goes a little too far. I agree with the removal of any and all "luxury items" such as cable, weights, porn, and TV, but not necessarily with denying them basic needs such as food and shelter. I pulled up another article about tent city that talked about these prisoners being denied medical attention at times and guard brutality. As for the statement that if we make jails a living hell, we'll be sending out devils, I don't fully agree. When I did something wrong as a kid my parents spanked me. It didn't make me angry and go out to do it again, it made me second guess myself the next time I thought about doing it. "Is watching TV instead of cleaning my room really worth a red bottom?"

I don't think having recreational time is all bad though. I have no clue if this is the purpose of the dance program or not, but to have something like that, that all the inmates want to be a part of and having a strict behavioral incentive behind it could be great. I recently helped out at a kids camp and we had one boy in particular who was an "attention getter." One night, he started pretending to mumble and talk in his sleep. He was bunked a few beds down and was right next to one of the junior councilors who tried silencing him. He assumed the boy was genuinely talking in his sleep so after a few tries to silence him he gave up. After a few more minutes of the kid's increasingly louder mumbling, I walked over and whispered "I know you're awake and if you continue to make these noises I'll start taking away activity time." I never heard another peep.

Well, I certainly made up for not blogging in a while, but let me know your thoughts. Are the prison systems too soft? How tough is too tough?

Here's the original Thriller video if you haven't seen it.