Kabanjahe Prison Burns, Drug Issues Become The Mastermind

Riot police illustration (Fajrul_Falah / pixabay)

JAKARTA - Class IIB Detention Center (Rutan) Kabanjahe, North Sumatra, suddenly went into chaos. The prisoners went on a rampage to burn the office building. The reason was because they did not accept the matter of prosecuting drugs in the detention cell.

Rika Aprianti, Head of the Public Relations Division of the Directorate General of Corrections, said the riot occurred on Wednesday, February 12, at around 12.00 WIB. Some of the prisoners were said to be provocateurs of the chaos.

"The trigger for the incident was because there were unscrupulous members of the Correctional Institution who did not accept the efforts to eradicate drugs in the detention center," Rika said when confirmed, Wednesday, February 12.

The riot started when the officers found 30 grams of crystal methamphetamine belonging to the four prisoners' room. The discovery of the prohibited items was carried out during a search of all the detention cells, Wednesday, January 8.

Then, with the findings of the shabu-shabu, the four prisoners were handed over to the police for legal proceedings. After all the police investigations were completed, the four prisoners were returned to the Kabanjahe Detention Center.

The riot took place at the State Detention Center (Rutan). the number of floating stones. pic.twitter.com/k32TZYyVYR

- stevanie Huang (pink tick) (@Stevaniehuangg) February 12, 2020

At that time, they provoked the other inmates to refuse to search the detention cells. Eventually, some of the prisoners who were affected began to riot by shouting from inside the detention cell.

"Prison officers tried to calm the prisoners down. However, they actually resisted and carried out the destruction," said Rika.

The rioting widened, then the angry prisoners set fire to the detention service room and security staff.

With the arson action, the TNI-Polri also intervened to help the evacuation process of all prisoners. Based on data, 410 assisted residents consisting of 380 men and 30 women have been evacuated from the location of the fire.

Head of Public Relations of the North Sumatra Regional Police, Kombes Tatan Dirsan Atmaja, confirmed that in the evacuation process not a single prisoner escaped. In addition, the fire that had previously burned several rooms was put out by the firefighters.

"The inmates have been evacuated and no one has fled. The situation is under control," he said.