DCJ now into podcasting of inmates’ activities

DAGUPAN CITY – The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Bonuan Gueset this city is now into podcasting, a first among jails nationwide, for wider information dissemination about the activities of the inmates and their ongoing projects, via the Internet.

Jail Senior Inspector Roque Constantino Sison III, jail warden told The STAR yesterday that the Dagupan City Jail (DCJ) podcast was launched on Feb. 24 with initial uploads of his local radio interview about developments inside the jail as well as his third return as jail warden here which he had helped become the Grand Slam awardee as Best City Jail nationwide in 2002, 2003 (as back to back awardee as Best City Jail Warden) and in 2004.

Sison said they are maximizing the internet connection provided by the city government by having this undertaking free of charge with the assistance of Bill, an inmate from Anda, Pangasinan who is adept in the information technology (IT) as well as in design and concept.

Bill, 31, who has stayed in the jail for four years, told The STAR that he wants to spend his time in jail productively and since the warden discovered his skills in IT, they had together made the jail’s activities known worldwide including services rendered by various groups to the inmates through the Internet.

Podcasting is now increasingly becoming popular because information can be shared to anyone anytime and heard like on a radio.

Wikipedia describes podcast as a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet, often using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.

It was through Bill that the BJMP here has launched its DCJ homepage at bjmpdagu­pancity.googlepages.com that contains their podcast, blog, among other relevant information about them.

It also has its blogspot at bjmpdagu­pancityjail.blogspot.com with news and photo releases. Its latest posting was the conduct of medical mission at the BJMP here by a group of Korean missionaries called Philippine Mustard Seed Mission dated Feb. 27.

Sison was first assigned here Jan. 2001 and the first blogpost was made Jan. 27, 2006. Now on his third stint as warden when he was reassigned here on Jan. 18, Sison and Bill again joined hands in launching their podcast.

Why podcast? Bill said it’s because to let visually impaired people to keep abreast of their latest happenings, as well as to enable busy people who do not have the luxury of time to read their postings can instead download from the Internet by visiting their site from podcast ipods or MP3 players and even cellphones capable of playing MP3 files.

Also, Bill said the interviews could be listened to over and over and it could also be sent to their friends and supporters via email for wider information dissemination by going high-tech.

“Para di masayang yung time na walang masyadong ginagawa sa loob ng selda (This is not to waste idle time inside the cell when doing nothing),” Bill said. But he clarified that all the inputs are the warden’s ideas.

“Maybe, we are the first and the only jail countrywide going high-tech like this,” Sison said.

To be included in their next postings are ongoing projects like rehabilitation of their facilities like the visitor’s waiting shed, cooperative store, guard house, basketball court, revival of their saloon, repair of their infirmary, illumination of the jail premises, renovation of the administrative and warden offices and all existing cells, and other livelihood activities.

Also, this city jail has invaded the You Tube featuring the PGMA Ladderized Education Program as some of their inmates are beneficiaries and the bible study of the Seventh-Day Adventist with the inmates.

They will next include their choir and dance troupe activities once these shall have been formed, Sison said.

Sison said these manifest their motto that reads, “Bilangguan man ay paraiso din sa patakarang maka Diyos at makatao (A prison is also a paradise with Godly and human policies).”