JAKARTA - Do you still remember the statement of the Minister of Law and Human Rights (Menkum HAM) Yasonna Laoly who wanted to free corruption convicts in order to reduce the spread of the corona virus in prisons? That statement was enough to make people rowdy for days. What will become of the commotion if people remember, Yasonna actually still has a job that she has not completed for a long time: overcapacity in prisons.
In the discourse he threw, Yasonna proposed the release of public money thieves who had served 2/3 of the mass sentence and they were old corruptors aged 60 years and over. Yasonna's intention was to realize the plan with the revision of Government Regulation (PP) 90/2012 concerning Terms and Procedures for the Implementation of the Rights of Correctional Assistants.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) reminded Yasonna of his responsibility to solve the problem of overcapacity in prisons and even in state detention centers (remand centers) in Indonesia. Plt. KPK spokesman for Prevention Ipi Maryati Kuding said that responsibility had been assigned to Yasonna through a recommendation issued by the KPK to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).
"The follow-up recommended by the KPK is for the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to cooperate with the BNN. And until now, this recommendation has not been implemented," said Ipi in a statement quoted by VOI, Wednesday, April 8.
Instead of bothering to revise regulations or create new mechanisms to free corruptors, KPK recommendations are actually more ready to be executed. Through this recommendation, Yasonna and his ministry will only have to undergo the diversion mechanism - transferring the settlement of cases from the criminal justice process to out of crime - for minor criminal cases and drug users.
In this recommendation, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights is also obliged to optimize the role of the Correctional Body (Bapas). This recommendation also makes more sense to be executed, considering that currently there are 40 thousand drug users who should be rehabilitated, not thrown into prison. Yasonna may have forgotten, Law (UU) No. 35/2009 on Narcotics mandates that drug users be saved through rehabilitation.
Overview of Law 35/2009. In drug cases, users are usually threatened with at least three articles, namely article 111 paragraph 1 concerning Group I drug abuse in the form of plants or Article 112 paragraph 1 concerning Group I drug abuse in the form of non-plants. The threats in these two articles are the same, namely imprisonment for a minimum of four years and a maximum of 12 years and a fine of at least Rp. 800 million and a maximum of Rp. 8 billion.
Another article is Article 127 paragraph 1 which reads: Every perpetrator of narcotics abuse class I for himself shall be sentenced to imprisonment of up to 4 years. Meanwhile, for self-use narcotics class II shall be punished with a maximum imprisonment of 2 years and narcotics Category III for themselves shall be punished with imprisonment of up to 1 year.
However, there are other articles that are related, namely article 127 paragraph 2 which has been missing from the process of handling drug abuse cases. This article is important to be a guide for law enforcers because it emphasizes the perspective of users as victims of abuse who must be cured by the state.
"In deciding cases as referred to in paragraph (1), judges are obliged to pay attention to the provisions referred to in article 54, article 55, and article 103 of the Narcotics Law," he stated. The three articles, both 54, 55, and 103 of Law 35/2009 oblige judges to place drug users in medical and social rehabilitation institutions, not prisons. This article also clearly confirms its position as a guideline that should be used by judges in the trial against victims of drug abuse.
Other reason
There are still many other reasons why Yasonna doesn't bother to free the corruptors. Plt. KPK spokesperson for Prevention Ipi Maryati Kuding continued the presentation of recommendations that Yasonna had not fulfilled until now. For example, regarding the application of system-based remissions.
Through the system, the application of remissions is expected to run automatically without going through submissions. "This means that remissions are given automatically and not through petition. On the condition that prisoners do not have bad behavior during their detention period," he said.
The recommendation regarding remission is very important for Yasonna to carry out because it is related to the problem of overstaying prisoners, aka staying longer. Ipi said overstay was one of the main problems why there were so many prisoners in prison.
Regarding the release of corruption convicts as a step to minimize the spread of COVID-19, it is simple. If all the recommendations above are carried out by the Yasonna ministry, the government will not be scrambling to face the potential transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic in prison.
Especially to the point of freeing thieves like Setya Novanto or Suryadharma Ali, the former minister of religion who collected funds for the procurement of the holy Koran. Imagine, in 2018, Ipi recorded 30 thousand inmates who were overstayed. It is an open secret that overstay cases usually occur due to administrative problems in the prison.
In full, clearing overstay will reduce at least 30 percent or 261 thousand inmates congestion in the prison. Then, how many corrupt convicts? "The number (corruption convicts) is only about five thousand convicts," said Ipi.
The state also seems aware that Yasonna's ideas are far from plausible. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) immediately spoke up, saying he would not revise PP 90/2012, as Yasonna had planned. Jokowi even said that, "we have never discussed the matter of corrupt convicts in our meetings," Jokowi said before chairing a limited meeting at the Bogor Presidential Palace, Monday, April 6.
The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD is in line with the President. "There are no plans to give remissions or parole to the perpetrators or to corruption convicts as well as to terrorists. Nor is it against drug dealers," Mahfud said in a statement on Sunday, April 5.
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