Prisons Are Full, The Government Needs To Find Solutions For Drug Prisoners

JAKARTA - The pressure for the government to find other solutions for dealing with drug-related prisoners emerged after the fire incident at the Class I prison in Tangerang, Banten, which killed 44 inmates.

Moreover, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD stated that 50 percent of the capacity of prisons in the country is filled by drug convicts.

Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) researcher Maidina Rahmawati said that the large number of convicts in drug cases indicated the failure of implementing the policy. The reason is because most of the prisoners are actually just users who don't need to be put behind bars.

He revealed data on 28,241 inmates throughout Indonesia who are drug users and must now be detained.

"This figure could increase because most of the narcotics users were also charged with possession and control of narcotics which are classified as dealers," Maidina said in a written statement on Wednesday, September 8.

So, instead of throwing inmates, especially drug users, into prison, they can actually be sentenced to alternative punishments such as rehabilitation or conditional punishment with probation.

Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid said the same thing, saying that excess capacity in detention centers and prisons is a serious problem in the criminal justice system in Indonesia. So, he asked the government to take quick steps to fix it.

"One of the steps the government can take to deal with this problem is to change the political orientation of policies in dealing with minor crimes, including those related to the use of narcotics," he said in a written statement.

Not only drug convicts, Usman also mentioned that the government can also release prisoners who don't actually need to be in prison. One of them is those who are detained on the basis of the ITE Law, which contains many articles on rubber.

He also reminded that these fires should not be considered as ordinary fires, but should be interpreted as something important that the government needs to do.

"This is not an ordinary fire incident but also a human rights issue. This incident further shows the urgency to address the prison problem in Indonesia, which is full of human rights violations," said Usman.

Moreover, prisoners and convicts are often placed in overcrowded prisons that threaten their lives and health, as happened in the Class I prison in Tangerang. In fact, they should be entitled to a proper detention center or prison.

Related to this urgency, the government admits that it is looking for the best way to handle drug convicts. Moreover, the number of prisoners related to drugs reaches 50 percent of the total number.

"Of the 200 thousand inmates or inmates, 50 percent are drugs. Drug cases. Imagine, one crime dominates the other 50 percent," said Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD after visiting the Class I prison in Tangerang, Banten, which caught fire on Wednesday, September 8.

"This, of course, is something we have to talk about again, how to deal with drug crimes and follow up in court, and follow up on court decisions," added the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK).

Mahfud said that a drug dealer does need to be imprisoned after the judge's decision has permanent legal force. As for users, it should be considered further whether they need to be thrown into prison or should be rehabilitated.

"So that prisons are not full of that (drug users, ed). Because we used to be called prisons in the Dutch era, in 50 it was initiated that the name was not prison but the purpose of prison was to humanize humans," he said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Law and Human Rights (Menkumham) Yasonna Laoly said that excess capacity in prisons is a classic. Thus, there are a number of things that will be done, including encouraging the revision of the Narcotics Law.

"Our problem is narcotics crime violations, which represent more than 50 percent of the capacity of prisons throughout Indonesia. The handling is narcotics. I have long proposed a revision of the narcotics law," he told reporters, Wednesday, September 8.

In an effort to revise the Narcotics Law, only dealers will be prosecuted and must serve a prison term. Meanwhile, users are required to undergo rehabilitation. "For example, drug users, we hope that they will be rehabilitated. If all of them are put in prisons, they won't fit. 4 million can be (the number of narcotic prisoners), now it's 270 thousand, we are already intoxicated," said the PDI-P politician.

As previously reported, the Tangerang Class I Prison caught fire on Wednesday, September 8, in the early hours of the morning. As a result, 44 prisoners died due to the incident including 2 foreign nationals from Portugal and South Africa.

They died after not being able to save themselves due to being trapped in their detention cells because they were locked. The locking of the detention cell is in accordance with applicable regulations and must be implemented.

The cause of the prison fire is still being investigated. However, it is suspected that the red rooster went berserk due to a short circuit in the electrical installation.