PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — Jail officials at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Puerto Princesa City District Jail-Female Dormitory are eyeing expanded sports, including cultural and other recreational programs to rehabilitate and retrain persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) before their eventual release back to society.
In a press release on Sunday, Jan. 26, BJMP Mimaropa Information Officer Jail Officer 3 Joefrie Anglo said the program cover various indoor and outdoor sports activities to promote jail set-up conducive to a peaceful environment, “as these activities facilitate social interactions and help alter distressing behaviors.”
Anglo said, “the program aims to introduce chess as a tool for education and social inclusion in jails. This also dispel the harrowing narratives and ideas about jails as fortified dungeons.” He said they make it a point to make the PDL’s stay in jail as “productive, rehabilitative, and worthwhile.”
Anglo recalled that in October 2022, four PDLs who are under the custody of the BJMP won the men’s second Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners. This historic win of PDL put the country on the global map of chess, particularly among the players in places of detention.
Meanwhile, to facilitate smoother reintegration into society, the BJMP-PPCJFD is enhancing its welfare and development programs centered on behavior modification and therapeutic community, which are crucial in addressing the complex needs of female PDLs under its custody. (Photo courtesy of JO3 Joefrie Anglo, IO-BJMP MIMAROPA)