THE SETBI’s 3rd International Conference is organized by the Social Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Business Institute and the University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP). There was a quiet anticipation in the building that housed the University of Southeastern Philippines’ audio-visual room. Participants from various universities from all over the country and government officials get ready for the Third International Conference on Persons Deprived of Liberty’s Transformative Education for Successful Re-entry, a conference initiated by the Social Entrepreneurship Technology and Business Institute. In 2016, Dr Aland Mizell and Atty. Susan P. Cariaga co-founded the first College Education Behind Bars in the Philippines and Southeast Asia after seeing the poor condition of the Davao City Jail. People who were presumed innocent stayed in jail for an average of ten years and all the time they weren’t doing anything. They asked themselves how they could help these people. At first, they wanted to propose a recovery program, but there were already many faith-based groups working with the jail, and what mattered to the people deprived of liberty were jobs.The two decided that if the PDLs were staying there for around ten years, they should get a college degree so they could find a job once they were released. They also agreed that this program should have a component of recovery and rehabilitation. They needed to teach these PDLs how to make the right life choices, or else, the released PDLs may become more clever with their crimes.Therefore, Dr. Mizell made a written proposal and gave it to Jail Management, who immediately approved it. They talked to the USeP president at the time, Dr. Lourdes Generalao over breakfast. They told her their proposal and she immediately jumped on it, agreeing that it was a noble project. She said she would take care of having it approved by her board. It was then that they drafted the Memorandum of Agreement between SETBI, USeP, and the BJMP. They had a tie signing at the Batasan Pambansa, then it was time to hit the ground running. They built the SETBI’s first campus in the Davao City Jail using their own funds since no one wanted to take the risk on them initially, wanting to see if it worked or not. Now, in 2024, it’s clearly working and drawing attention from all over the country and even abroad.
The entire room buzzed with conversation, whether preparing for their presentations later in the afternoon or talking about the keynote speaker/s of the day, as they all waited for the conference to start. The conference started promptly after everyone got registered and seated. In the beginning, there were standard welcoming remarks from Dr. Roger C. Montepio, USeP’s vice president for research, development, and extension, as well as messages from SETBI president, Dr. Mizell, and current university president, Dr. Bonifacio G. Gabales talking about how important conferences like these were. These two messages led the conference to the first keynote speaker of the conference, Dr. Mneesha Gellman.
Dr. Gellman is the founder and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which, similar to SETBI, offers college education to people deprived of liberty at Massachusetts Correctional Institution.
She was approached by Dr. Mizell to give a speech at this conference, which she accepted because she was interested in expanding the network of people who offer college behind bars, especially in the global south, which tended to have non-degree granting programs. She wanted to support and encourage the administrators of this program that SETBI was providing to help support people in other countries as well as other regions of the Philippines to follow SETBI’s successful model.
In her rousing talk, Unlocking Learning: The Societal Impact of Education in Prison, she wanted us to look critically at the term “public safety” and what it means and redefine it to be something that would help create long-lasting public safety in society. She urged the conference to find interventions, like college behind bars, and other programs that would help persons deprived of liberty transform their circumstances when they leave prison or if they were incarcerated for a long time.
This was followed by a handful of speakers, one of whom was a former person deprived of liberty, Ms. Esnaira Sanday, who spoke about her experiences in jail and her subsequent enrollment to SETBI’s College Behind Bars program. Her story pulled at the heartstrings of the captive audience and showed that anyone could successfully return to society with confidence when given a second chance at higher education.
Later in the afternoon, there was a flurry of presenters from different universities in the Philippines who were showcasing their papers, complete with their methodology and the conclusions derived from their findings to their peers.
From needs assessments that describe the living conditions of the people deprived of liberty and what they need in order to better return to life outside of prison to the efficacy of programs that were being done in their respective jails that help provide educational opportunities to people deprived of liberty, they all demonstrate the importance of research and putting said research into writing in order to convey to the government officials, as well as to the society at large, what is required to help our incarcerated fellowmen, not only to reenter society but also improve their quality of life while they serve their sentence. There were plenty of presenters so this bled into the following day of the conference, where more of these papers were shown and shared, strengthening the network and community of people interested in this field.
On the second day of the conference, there were two more keynote speakers. The first, via Zoom call, was Attorney Sean Addie, the Director of the Correctional Education Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education, who was also tapped by Dr. Mizell to speak to the conference.
He talked about what the United States government is doing to provide education to people deprived of liberty, including the ability to receive a Pell Grant that would help pay for their education. He also talked about the benefits of education in its ability to reduce recidivism or the tendency of a person to re-offend the law after being released. Though the talk was less personal than the others, being over video, it still provided important information about how the USA was doing its part in helping the PDLs.
Following him was the chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Dr. J. Prospero “Popoy” De Vera III. He spoke about what we could do to move forward with what we were doing for the people deprived of liberty. The first was to document their stories, which would help people recognize the validity of these theories. Then it was to create a community of practice, which was why this conference was important, so we could learn from each other, whether it be locally or abroad.
He also said to incentivize the involvement of the faculty and administrators so that there would be a strong network behind the programs. He promised six million pesos would be allocated from the Philippine government to the training for those faculty members and administrators who would start a college behind bars program, which gained a significant amount of applause from the participants. This left the room brimming with renewed vigor in what they were set out to do.
On the third day of the conference, there was a site tour of the College Education Behind Bars Facility in the Davao City Jail and the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (Dapecol). This was an optional tour but quite a number of the participants joined in.
First was the SETBI facility in Dapecol, a separate building from the other penal facilities in the area. There, in peaceful blue and white, stood the building filled with air-conditioned classrooms and PDL students who were going about their days despite there being a large group of people visiting. The first floor was a calm environment, free from distraction or interruption, conducive to study.
There were also computers for those majoring in computer science that were connected to the internet, something that Dr. Gellman was surprised to note that we had since the computers in her program were not connected. Behind the building was a basketball court that could also be converted into a meeting area for the PDLs to meet with their families.
On the second floor, there was a large conference room that was, for the time being, converted into a dormitory that housed eighty-three students. It was worth noting that this was an important aspect of the building as it gave the PDL students a less congested environment to do their studies. The participants were definitely fascinated by the facility that was put up and they were all in complete attention as Dr. Mizell facilitated the tour.
After the short tour, everyone transferred to the Davao City Jail. Though the SETBI facility there was smaller than the one in Dapecol, it still could fit plenty of PDL students on both floors. The classrooms here were also air-conditioned and there was a room in the building where the PDLs displayed the items they made for sale.
From bags to bottles of tuba, these represented the diligence the PDLs put in to have their own livelihood within the prison. Once everyone had congregated in this section, one of the PDLs was allowed to go out of her class to market the wares that she had made and a few people purchased them, which made her quite happy and pleased by the result. With that, the tours were done and everyone went home.
A partnership with a purpose can overcome many obstacles and achieve great things. More than 100 students graduated from the SEBTI College Education Behind Bars program and many of them are fully employed and have a recidivism rate. SETBI ‘s College Education Behind Bars is the first kind in the Philippines and even Southeast Asia. More than 23 universities trying to replace the SETBI programs in their institutions nationwide.
The SETBI’s main goal for initiating the conference is to share information on the importance of building a robust, supportive community that is essential to these incarcerated people across the Philippines. Building a robust, supportive community is essential to this work, so we are pleased growing group of practitioners gathered third time for the 3rdinternational conference on PDLs transformative Education for successful reentry.
All in all, the conference was a resounding success. Not only did the participants exchange their knowledge with one another, but they were also inspired to start their own college behind bars program. Truly, this was what SETBI envisioned when they initiated the conference, bringing a group of like-minded individuals to create a community of people who were interested in improving the lives of the people deprived of liberty and giving them a brighter tomorrow. What a noble pursuit indeed!
