Tim Percepatan Reform Hukum Proposal Grasi Mass Pengguna Narkowi Ke Jokowi

Member of the Working Group 1 Team for the Acceleration of Legal Reform Rifqi Sjarief Assegaf /ANTARA / Genta Tenri Mawangi.

JAKARTA - The Team for the Acceleration of Legal Reform formed by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD proposed to President Joko Widodo that there be mass clemency against narcotics convicts whose sentences were relatively light.

Member of the Working Group 1 of the Legal Reform Acceleration Team Rifqi Sjarief Assegaf assessed that the recommendation was given in response to the issue of overcrowded population capacity (overcrowded) of detention centers and correctional institutions dominated by narcotics abuse convicts.

"Almost 100 percent of prisons (correctional institutions) are totally overcrowded, and that's why we encourage mass clemency against drug users or drug abusers who have been criminalized too much. Hopefully, there will be a process to assess (assess, ed) which is true to only perpetrators or abusers, perpetrators of minor crimes so that mass clemency can be given so that the overcrowded (prison) problem can be better (handled)," said Rifqi during a press conference at the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs office. reported by ANTARA, Friday, September 15.

He continued that there are conditions and criteria that narcotics convicts need to have to obtain clemency, including that they are not recidivists and are not other perpetrators of criminal acts.

The Legal Reform Acceleration Team in its recommendation documents to President Jokowi proposed mass clemency for prisoners/residents of correctional assistance (WBP) who meet the requirements and those who are classified as perpetrators of minor crimes.

The measure of success of the recommendation includes the availability of eligible WBP data, namely those who are imprisoned only for violating Article 127 of Law Number 35 of 2009 or other articles according to Circular Letter of the Supreme Court (SEMA) Number 4 of 2010 should be considered as users; WBP other criminals whose penalty is under 5 years and sentenced to less than 2.5 years in prison (other than those related to corruption or violence); and they are not recidivists.

Regarding these data, the Legal Reform Acceleration Team targets to be collected for 3 months starting December 2023 in March 2024.

Another measure of success, the President gave mass clemency in stages to WBP drug abusers and WBP who met the requirements for minor crimes. The hope is that the policy can be implemented in March, June, and September 2024.

Several ministries/agencies are in charge of the follow-up to the recommendations, including the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs as the coordinator (leading sector), then the Supreme Court, the State Secretariat, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Attorney General's Office, the National Police, and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).

In the document submitted to the President, the Legal Reform Acceleration Team conveyed that the excess capacity in correctional institutions reached 77 percent. The number of inmates reached more than 228,000, while the capacity was only around 128,000.

"In some places, overcrowding reached 300 percent. The largest population is the WBP for drug abusers, which is estimated to reach 60 percent. This condition affects the ability of the community to provide proper guidance and treatment for WBP, does not answer the basic problems that exist (drug dependence), encourages the practice of KKN in detention centers/prisons and burdens the country's very large finances," he explained.