Sentencing Reform: Dancing Will Set You Free
We're guessing you've all seen this video of 1,500 Filipino prisoners dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." It has been discussed all over the blogosphere and MSM. E.g, Gawker; Concurring Opinions; Times of London.
(We're just surprised that sentencing guru Doug Berman -- who, by the way, moderated a great panel on the federal sentencing guidelines at the recent ACS convention we attended (and will write about later) -- hasn't weighed in on this innovative approach to criminal punishment.)
In case you haven't seen it, here's the clip:
Pretty cool, eh? Professor Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School quipped, "I want to meet the warden."
Well, Professor Nesson, we can help. As it turns out, Byron Garcia -- the prison official who came up with this idea, and uploaded the video clip to YouTube -- is our uncle!
You can read our correspondence with Tito Byron, after the jump.
We noticed that the YouTube clip was uploaded by user byronfgarcia, based in Cebu City, the Philippines. That's where our mother's family is from. So we sent Byron F. Garcia a YouTube message:
Hi there. My name is David Garcia Lat. My mom, Zenda Garcia Lat, is one of the children of the late Jesus B. Garcia Sr. and Severiana Garcia (my Lolo Jess and Lola Ever) [my maternal grandparents].I see that you write for the Sun Star [which is the Garcia family newspaper]. Maybe we are related?
I love the video!
Best,
David
And he wrote back:
Hi,Sure we are related, I'm the son of your Lolo Pabling [brother of our late grandfather] and I'm the brother of your aunt Gwen.
Thanks for viewing!
Byron
We responded:
Oh wow, that's awesome!I haven't been following this that closely (a friend of mine emailed this), but is this actually a video from a prison in Cebu?
And he explained:
David,This was taken at the jail, Capitol runs the Provincial jail in Cebu. I am the Security Consultant and I oversee the operations there. This is actually one of our concepts in jail management wherein instead of the usual morning exercises, we let the inmate[s] memorize [dance moves], and count their routine using the beat of the music.
Keep in touch!
Uncle Byron
How random. What a small world!
"Thriller" (original upload) [YouTube]
Everybody Dance Now: Thriller [Gawker]
i want to meet the warden [eon / Charles Nesson]
Friday Fun: Thriller, Remixed [Concurring Opinions]
Jailhouse rock gets the whole cell block dancing [Times Online (UK)]
(25) 
Seems like the sense of humour runs in the family.
Twisted...yet amazing. I want to know the story behind the guy playing the geisha role...
The unfortunate flipside:
http://www.viceland.com/int/v14n4/htdocs/flip.php?country=us
From the article posted by Sulee (2:13):
"The lesbian inmates are kept segregated in the next cell over from the straight women. All they do all day is have pillow fights in their underwear. (We wish.)"
If Byron Garcia's father is the brother of Lat's grandfather, he's not really Lat's uncle, is he?
Wouldn't he be a cousin?
When you are from the PI, everybody is your auntie or uncle. No need to waste time figuring out the exact relationship.
Lat, that is AWESOME that your uncle is a warden there. SO COOL!
2:24: wouldn't that make him a great uncle?
first cousin once removed.
Yes, great uncle.
Wow T&E lawyers like to suck the fun out of everything. Must be dealing with all that death.
Billy, have you ever spent any time in a Filipino prison?
3:02-No, first cousin once removed is your first cousin's kid.
3:12,
But what's your parent's first cousin? Doesn't it work both ways?
Believe it's second cousin, which M-W defines as "the child of one's parent's first cousin".
wait, no, is that right? i don't know.
3:02 is right. First cousin once removed. Ask any T&E lawyer.
These people are probably in prison for selling counterfeits and knock-offs, and here they are dancing to an unlicensed version of Thriller.
Wow, what a great story. Too bad this is obviously fake. Why are their shirts labeled IN ENGLISH???
Byron Garcia is the first degree cousin of David Lat's mother. The father of Byron is the younger brother of David"s grandfather. In the Philippines, they still consider this as "uncle",
9:36, English is widely used in the Philippines, a former American colony.
Here is an article about prison management that Byron Garcia wrote for the Cebu Sun-Star (the newspaper owned by the Garcia family - David Lat's family on his mother's side):
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2006/07/07/oped/byron.f..garcia.consultant.on.security.cebu.provincial.government..html
As you can see, the Cebu Sunstar is an English-language newspaper.
936 - English is an official language and it's everywhere in the Philippines (remember, it's a former U.S. colony...).
My bad.
936
Hello,
I'm a blogger at NewTeeVee.com doing research on the CPDRC videos. Could I contact you over e-mail with some questions? Thanks for your time.
Craig (at) newteevee (dot) com
David -- (and anyone else interested) -- a feature length documentary of the CPDRC dance program is currently being shot on site, and Byron has a very prominent role.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDTCKS4qXM8