MikeLigalig.com

The prison and its 3,186 convicts are just 14km away from Puerto Princesa, capital of Palawan province, a top tourist destination near stunning dive sites and a giant underground river system.


Minimum security inmate Edwin sells cookies and peanuts to children at Iwahig's natural swimming pool [Angel L Martinez Cantera/Al Jazeera]

Surrounded by a thick coastal mangrove forest and a mountain range, the 26,000-hectare jail - which is more than twice the size of Paris - offers a unique approach to reforming criminals.

"I stabbed a man to death," recalled 36-year-old inmate Effren Espinosa Jr as he waved a machete. "Here conditions are better than in other prisons, and guards treat us with dignity," he said before resuming his clearing duties in the garden.

As many as 200 minimum-security inmates are responsible for farming and office-related work, as well as for supervising the tasks of the medium-security inmates. Nearly 1,000 of the latter, who wear blue T-shirts, take care of the rice paddies, coconut plantations, corn fields and vegetable plots scattered across the prison grounds.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=81118.0

Convicted murderer Oscar Omisol takes care of a vegetable plot inside the colony [Angel L Martinez Cantera/Al Jazeera]

"The idea of this prison is to rehabilitate criminals, so that the minimum-security inmates feel integrated within the community. Our main mission is no longer only punitive but information and restorative justice," Iwahig's Superintendent Antonio C Cruz told Al Jazeera.

Created in 1904 by the American colonial government that ruled the Philippines at the time, Iwahig's location kept the most dangerous Filipino criminals isolated.

When the Philippines won independence after World War II, those who had served out their term were given the option to own land for free, depending on their conduct. Security measures softened in the 1970s, allowing some convicts' families to move inside the penal farm.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=81118.0

Inmates can make artwork and handicrafts to sell to tourists [Angel L Martinez Cantera/Al Jazeera]

Twenty-nine-year-old Jeffrey, who sells his paintings at the prison, considers his sentence to be disproportionate: He is serving 15 years for stealing a car.

"I don't like it in here. My family can't come and visit because this island is too far from Manila," said Jeffrey, who also complains about food shortages in the prison.

Similarly, Araceli Gaddi, 62, criticised the prison's new regulations. "Rules are getting tougher. My husband can't live outside any more."

She lives in the hut set up for prisoners' families, but her husband has to sleep in the barracks. Since Gaddi moved to the colony in 1993 as the wife of an inmate, both her and her husband Dick were allowed to live together in a hut, where they raised their three children and a grandson. But that is no longer an option.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=81118.0

A few guards supervise the work of hundreds of criminals wielding sharp tools [Angel L Martinez Cantera/Al Jazeera]

The report singled out "Balsahan", the natural swimming pool at Iwahig. Although tourists are charged an entrance fee, the report stated "there is no official receipt or any proof of payment issued to paying visitors … Therefore, there is great probability that corruption may occur".

But James Ali, the father of one of the children swimming in the pool, said concerns such as transparency are trumped by the benefits offered at this prison without walls.

"I don't think they're bad people," he said, pointing at one of the inmates. "Anyone is capable of doing what they did if forced by the circumstances. Everyone deserves a second chance".

Follow Angel L Martinez Cantera on Twitter: @AngelLMartnez

Source: Al Jazeera

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=81118.0