The video of hundreds of Filipino prisoners dancing to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ (see related news item July 24, 2007) is a hot hit on YouTube and has had nearly three million views so far. The clip from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre in the Phillipines had been viewed 2,788,974 times at the start of July 30, with figures constantly on the rise.

Dancing at the prison is compulsory for all 1,600 inmates except the elderly and infirm. Routines were initially developed last year when Byron Garcia, a security consultant for the Cebu provincial government, made inmates march to Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ in a bid to increase exercise.

Mr. Garcia said it had helped “drastically” improve inmate behaviour and two former inmates have since become dancers:

“Using music, you can involve the body and the mind. The inmates have to count, memorise steps and follow the music.

Inmates say to me: ‘You have put my mind off revenge, foolishness, or thinking how to escape from jail, or joining a gang’.”

Prisoners have also performed to songs by local artists, Queen, and from the film ‘Sister Act’.

Source: BBC News