41 Tangerang Prison Prisoners Died During Prison Fire, ICJR: Overcrowding Causes Mitigation To Be Hampered During Emergency
JAKARTA - The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) assesses that the condition of prisons that are overcapacity or overcrowding makes mitigation during an emergency situation difficult.
This is what allegedly caused 41 inmates at the Class I Tangerang Prison to die during a fire incident on Wednesday, September 8 this morning. Moreover, this Tangerang Class I Prison is inhabited by 2,087 inmates as of last August or exceeding its capacity which is only intended for 600 inmates.
"This clearly has an impact on efforts to mitigate prisons in emergency conditions. For example, fire. Overcrowding will certainly complicate the supervision, maintenance of the prison, up to the quick evacuation process in the event of a disaster such as a fire," said ICJR researcher Maidina Rahmawati in a statement to reporters, Wednesday, September 8. .
He said the overcapacity was due to the incompatibility of the criminal justice system in Indonesia with prison conditions. In fact, the use of imprisonment is the most important punishment.
"Prison sentences are 52 times more often used by prosecutors and judges than other crimes," said Maidina.
"Police, prosecutors, judges don't seem to care much about the condition of prisons that are already overloaded beyond a reasonable threshold, like in this Tangerang Class I prison," he added.
Furthermore, Maidina also mentioned the large number of narcotic convicts who filled the prison. This indicates a policy failure because the majority of prisoners for this crime are users who do not actually need to be thrown into prison.
According to him, there are 28,241 inmates throughout Indonesia who are drug users who are now in prison. "This figure could increase because most of the narcotics users were also charged with possession and control of narcotics which are classified as dealers," he said.
In fact, instead of imposing imprisonment, they can be given alternative punishments such as rehabilitation or conditional punishment with probation.
"ICJR calls for special attention from the government to the victims and families of the victims of this prison fire accident. The government needs to be firmly responsible for this with a measurable plan for solving the prison overcrowding problem and of course a recovery program for victims," said Maidina.
As previously reported, a fire occurred at the Class I prison in Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday, September 8 in the morning. Initially, the incident occurred due to an electrical short circuit and the fire raged for approximately two hours.
This fire resulted in 41 inmates died and some were injured. The injured victim has now been taken to the Tangerang Regional Hospital for treatment and treatment.