Making Prisons Full, The Government Is Looking For Ways To Deal With Inmates In Drug Cases

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JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD, said the government would look for ways to deal with drug convicts in the country. The reason is that 50 percent of the inmates came from this crime.

"Of the 200 thousand prisoners or inmates, 50 percent are drugs. Drug cases. Imagine, one crime dominates the other 50 percent", said Mahfud after visiting the Tangerang Class I prison, Banten, which caught fire on Wednesday, September 8.

"This is, of course, 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.

Mahfud said that a drug dealer needs 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 a prison but the purpose of prison was to humanize humans", he said.

Mahfud also mentioned the excess capacity in prisons. According to him, this is nothing new because before he had known about the condition since 2004 when he was a member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.

At that time, said Mahfud, he had traveled to several prisons where 30 to 40 inmates had to occupy a small detention room.

So, in the future, the government will seek the construction of correctional institutions which have been hampered by many things, including the budget. This development will utilize land owned by Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) obligors that have been confiscated.

"I said that if people build it, they need money and need land. I said I already looked for the land, you need how many thousand hectares, we will find the cost", said Mahfud.

"Where did these thousands of hectares come from, I have spoken to the finance ministry earlier, the land from the BLBI that we now control is okay, how many correctional institutions will need, throughout Indonesia", he added.

As previously reported, a fire occurred at the Class I prison in Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday, September 8 in the morning. Initially, the incident occurred due to an electrical short circuit and the fire raged for approximately two hours.

This fire resulted in the death of 41 inmates, of which two were foreigners from South Africa and Portugal. Meanwhile, the injured victims have now been taken to the Tangerang Regional Hospital to undergo treatment and receive treatment.

Regarding this incident, the Head of Public Relations and Protocol of the Directorate General of Corrections, Rika Apriyanti, admitted that the number of inmates at the Class I prison in Tangerang exceeded the capacity. In fact, almost three times the capacity.

"If the condition of the prison is over capacity, yes", said Rika to reporters, Wednesday, September 8.

Based on the data, the capacity of Class I Tangerang prison should ideally accommodate 900 inmates. However, currently, the prison is filled with more than 2,000 convicts of various crimes.

"From the supposed capacity of 900, it is currently filled with 2,069 people", he said.