Inmates work at the jail’s bakery which supplies bread and pastries to the canteen of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO). (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
The bakeshop of the Cebu provincial jail, a unique enterprise of inmates there, has added “hopia” to its line of snacks.
The Chinese pastry with monggo filling was a tasty note in yesterday’s inauguration of new facilities in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) — an infirmary, new comfort rooms and a rehabilitated jeepney, all worth P100,000.
The “hopia” sells for P5 each, the newest addition to seven types of bread and pastry products baked by inmates who also produce donuts, siakoy, binangkal, belgium, francis and pandesal.
The revenue of the bakery is shared by the working inmates among themselves.
Jail consultant Marco Toral said the infirmary will be used to isolate sick inmates to prevent illness spreading to other detainees.
It made use of a donation of hospital beds from a medical facility in northern Cebu, he said in the weekly Kapistorya forum at the Capitol.
Four new comfort rooms were finished this week.
CPDRC presently has 2,360 inmates. Only 100 of them are female.
Toral said the infirmary will have a physician paid by the Capitol to report 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and five nurses on 24-hour shifts.
Inmates are required to do a monthly general cleaning of their detention cells, hallways and the quadrangle.
Prizes are given out to inmates with the cleanest cell.
Toral said the jail management is coming up with different sports activities, like boxing, for the inmates.
He said the Capitol is inviting boxers who train at the International Pharmaceuticals Inc. gym to spend time with CPDRC inmates.
Toral said they also look forward in the long term to build a P5-million rehabilitation center on a vacant lot located beside the CPDRC to accommodate about 30 percent of the present population who are convicted of minor offenses. This will help in their rehabilitation and decongest the jail’s main building.
“Inmates having light drug charges should be separated from those with serious criminal charges,” he said.