Overcrowding Becomes A Spotlight After The Tangerang Prison Fire, LBHM: Time To Reform Criminal Law Policy

Tangerang prison fire (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - The deadly fire at the Class I prison in Tangerang this morning killed 41 inmates. This humanitarian tragedy shows how bad the management of prisons in Indonesia is. For this reason, LBH Masyarakat (LBHM) encourages the importance of reforming criminal law policies.

Minister of Law and Human Rights (Menkumham) Yasonna Laoly told reporters some of the victims were prisoners of murder, terrorism and narcotics cases. "From those who died out of 41, apologize for one crime of murder, one terrorism, and the other drugs."

In addition to the 41 victims who died, there were 8 prisoners who suffered serious injuries and 72 others suffered minor injuries. They have been taken to the clinic for treatment. It is suspected that the cause of the fire was an electrical short circuit. However, investigations into the cause of the fire are still ongoing.

After this incident, the issue of overcrowding or overcrowding of prisons has been in the spotlight. Based on data from the Directorate General of Corrections at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, as of September 7, 2021, the Tangerang prison includes an overcapacity of 245 percent.

Catch the fire in Tangerang Prison

It is known, the capacity of Tangerang prison is only up to 600 people. However, according to data as of September 7, 2021, the prison is inhabited by 2,072 people. Of this number, 1,805 people are prisoners related to narcotics cases.

LBHM Case Handling Staff, Maruf Bajammal, assessed that the overcrowding condition and the large number of narcotics convicts who were categorized as users added to the list of problems with the prison approach to the formulation of narcotics criminal law in Indonesia. "This has an impact on the management of prisons in Indonesia, which are not prepared to respond to disaster conditions," said Maruf in a written statement received by VOI.

The tip of the iceberg

According to Maruf, the fire that occurred in Tangerang prison early this morning was only the tip of the iceberg of the problems of prison management in Indonesia. "Shows how bad the management of prisons in Indonesia is, both in terms of integrated criminal justice policies and prison management and security."

Indeed, the government had made a policy to reduce the problem of prison overcrowding. At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, the Minister of Law and Human Rights issued policies related to assimilation, parole, leave before being released, conditional leave in the context of dealing with Covid-19 in prisons and state detention houses for prisoners and children.

Prison overcrowding November 2017 (Ditjenpas/via icjr.or.id)

The policy is considered responsive to reduce overcrowding, but according to Maruf, in the case of narcotics addicts or users who are sentenced to more than five years in prison, they are not included in the policy scheme. "So it is important to re-enact the policy for inmates in the category of addicts or users."

Therefore, Maruf urged the government to reform the criminal law policy. "LBHM encourages reform of the prison approach in criminal law with an alternative to non-prison punishment."

In addition, LBHM also demanded that the government apologize for this incident. "And encourage an investigation and convey the results openly to the public regarding the fire in Tangerang prison."

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