Jail exercise Philipino style

An unusual physical fitness regime at a jail in the Philippines has attracted worldwide attention on the video sharing website, YouTube. A clip of hundreds of prisoners in orange uniforms dancing to Michael Jackson's song Thriller has been watched more than 1.3 million times.

The routine is the brainchild of Byron Garcia, a security consultant for the Cebu provincial government. He said it had helped "drastically" improve inmate behaviour.

And two former inmates have since become dancers.

The dancing is compulsory for all 1,600 inmates at the prison in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre, except the elderly and infirm. Prisoners have also performed to songs by local artists, Queen and from the film Sister Act, clips of which have been watched on YouTube tens of thousands of times.

"Using music, you can involve the body and the mind. The inmates have to count, memorise steps and follow the music," Mr Garcia said. "Inmates say to me: 'You have put my mind off revenge, foolishness, or thinking how to escape from jail, or joining a gang'," he said.

The routines developed last year after Mr Garcia started making inmates march to music, such as Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall, in a bid to increase participation in exercise.

You can watch the other dances HERE