Creative Governance though Prison Reforms

Recently I came across two interesting news items on prison reforms. Governments worldwide spent a fortune on prison maintenance, yet generally the results are unsatisfactory. The two news items below, one from Norway, called the Eco-Prison and the other from Philippines called the Dancing prison are great examples of Creative Public Governance. More governments should explore such innovations in their prison reforms.

The world's first ecological prison

The minimum-security Bastoey Prison on a lush island, where inmates include murderers and rapists prison, operates with solar panels, wood-fire heating instead of oil, strict recycling and eco-friendly food production. There are no locked gates or barbed wire. This innovative project aims to help the 115 prisoners learn values such as protecting the environment and respecting others.

The prisoners live in unlocked houses, in and are responsible for the care of about 200 chickens, eight horses, 40 sheep and 20 cows. They also tend the fields, pick berries and fish on the prison supplied boat.

All of the prison's agricultural products are raised organically without fertilizers or pesticides. It strives to be energy self-sufficient, using renewable power.

The inmates are happy with their freedom living in an environment that gives them individual responsibility . It is effective as the system motivates them to reform their behavior . Those who misbehaved, which is rare, will be sent back to maximum security prisons.

This is a fantastic model for prison officials to experiment on. One benefit is that the Bastoey Prison has the lowest maintenance cost since very little is spent on security.

Cebu’s dancing prison

The champion of the prison reform in Cebu is Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. Garcia is the first woman governor in Cebu in 400 years. Beautiful and elegant, she was voted as one of best dressed ladies in the Philippines. Beneath her soft exterior, however, she is a tough woman. First, she fired dozens of jail guards for corruption, installed an enhanced security system, broke up gangs, banned guns and the use of cash and enforced an exercise regime that in the past year evolved into dance routines. 70 percent of the prison's inmates were convicted of serious crimes like murder, rape and narcotics trafficking.

The dances are choreographed by a professional choreographer. The footage of the dance by more than 1,500 prisoners to Michael Jackson song "Thriller." had been uploaded on YouTube. It has been viewed more than 10 million times and became one of the most popular clips ever on the video-sharing Web site.

This unique experiment has already proven to be a rehabilitation program. The documentary maker "Dancing for Discipline," commented that the inmates have the biggest smiles. The system restores the inmates sense of self-esteem .

Comment

If serious criminals can be rehabilitated using such “soft” approaches, how about other prisoners of lesser crimes? It is high time that governments adopt a more unconventional approach to prison rehabilitation.

Talk on Creative Governance

Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.

I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net