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 .
