Bookworm inmates in Bago City Jail need more books, magazines

BACOLOD, Philippines – The Bago City Public Library (BCPL) in Negros Occidental on Thursday, July 11, launched a book donation drive for inmates at the city’s district jail.

Aline Montuya, a staff at the BCPL, said they now rally for more book donors to fill in a junction at the Bago City District Jail’s (BCDJ) chapel, which is being used now as a library for inmates.

“The area at the jail’s chapel is smaller than a mini-library but we find it so useful with some books and magazines as many inmates at BCDJ spend their vacant time reading even inside their respective detention cells, Montuyo told Rappler.

“In our monthly monitoring, we were amazed that there were really many bookworms inside jail,” Montuyo said.

“That’s why after a year we launched a library program with help of the city government, we campaign now for book donations or even magazine donations so we can provide lot of reading materials for our city’s inmates,” she added.

Jail Welfare and Development Officer Christine Contreras – David said BCDJ’s library was launched in May 2023 to develop reading habits among Bago’s inmates, and in compliance with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s (BJMP) mandate.

But the beauty in it is, David said the jail’s library complemented with their “Kapwa Ko, Guro Ko” (KPGK) program, which was also started in 2022.

KPGK is a writing, reading, and math mentoring program being led by college level or graduate inmates acting as teachers to their fellow inmates who are willing to learn still.

At present, David said BCDJ has 255 inmates (246 males and 9 females).

Moreover, David said the current book donation drive of the BCPL for BCDJ inmates will surely be good for its Alternative Learning System (ALS) for the incoming school year of 2024-2025.

“Right now, we have a total 81 new ALS enrollees – 14 in the elementary, 24 in junior high school, 43 in senior high school,” she disclosed.

With more reading materials, David said these will aid in their quest to have more literate inmates in Bago, calling it “a noble mission.”

Bago Mayor Nicholas Yulo hailed BCPL’s initiative regarding book donation drive for their city’s inmates.

He said it’s a boon for the inmates’ drive to learn more or finish school either in the elementary or high school.

Meanwhile, this coming July 25, Montuya said they will be holding the first anniversary of the jail’s library themed “Bridging the Gap” to be highlighted by a turn-over ceremony of donated books to the city’s library.

“So, from book donors to city’s library to the city’s jail. That will be the essence of our mission why we launched this book donation drive almost 12 days prior to the city jail library anniversary on the 25th,” she added. – Rappler.com