Coordinating Minister For Political, Legal And Security Affairs Says Implementation Of Conditional Crimes Is Effective In Reducing Prisoners In Prisons

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto at the Pullman hotel, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (5/6/2024). BETWEEN/Walda Marison

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Hadi Tjahjanto said efforts to implement conditional crimes in law enforcement were considered effective in reducing the number of prisoners in correctional institutions (Lapas). "Untungnya adalah nantinya di setiap lembaga permasyarakatan tidak terlalu penuh. Apalagi yang sekarang sudah overpasitas (penghuni, red) ya dan sifat hukumannya kan ada pengawasan dan kerja sosial," kata Hadi saat ditemui di Jakarta Pusat, Rabu 5 Juni, disitat Antara. According to Hadi, the provisions for the application of this conditional crime are already in the Criminal Code (KUHP) article 14a – article 14f of the Criminal Code concerning Conditional Crimes. In this article, law enforcers will have to prioritize the concept of restorative justice for prisoners who are sentenced to a maximum of one year in prison. Thus, prisoners with a maximum sentence of one year do not have to carry out imprisonment but do social work.

In fact, this article is not new to law enforcement. Law enforcers have only not used the article optimally because there are no guidelines. Now, Hadi continued, guidelines for using this article have been set up and agreed by the Supreme Court, the Attorney General's Office and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkum HAM). Hadi said the guidelines would be socialized by the three agencies to his staff during June 2024 to November 2024. This is done so that the application of restorative justice can be carried out optimally in all regions. Thus, it is hoped that this article can apply optimally even before the Criminal Code (KUHP) can only apply in 2026.