Monday, August 28, 2006

Prison

Our post-church outing today took us to the grounds of Manila's New Bilibid Prison, for no reason other than we knew we could.

The prison, some 25 km from downtown Manila, is actually not far from our neighborhood. In fact, we had an excellent view of the taller buildings around our house from near the prison walls. As we drove through the compound, we found the minimum, medium and maximum security camps. At the minimum security camps, we could easily see the cell blocks through the barbed wire, with laundry hanging out of the windows to dry. At the maximum security camp, all we could see was a 15-foot wall. Outside the main gate (pictured here, looking somewhat like a castle) are shops selling prisoner-made handicrafts, including a backpack for carrying rice.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You can not go wrong with prisoner-made handicrafts! Trust me, after 2 years at Leavenworth, I have plenty of lovely items that were made by the fine folks at the US Disciplinary Barracks. (That's where they send the military folks that made bad decisions!)