Bustamante’s factory is one of dozens of inmate businesses in the old Punta de Rieles prison, which has been transformed into an unusual experiment. Inmates form businesses, work for one another and offer products both to the world within the walls and to that without. There are bakeries and barbershops, a candy store and carpenter shop along streets where inmates mix with prison officials and police. To get chosen for Punta de Rieles, prisoners have to have at least a six-month period of good behavior elsewhere. Just like in the real world.”Money to start businesses comes from inmates’ families or from a quasi-bank largely administered by inmates themselves.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer June 12, 2019 04:41 UTC