After The Tangerang Prison Caught Fire, The Government Has Not Yet Discussed The Correctional Bill

Photo by Hédi Benyounes on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of House of Representatives Commission III, Adies Kadir, said that the government through the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) was not ready to continue discussing the revision of Law Number 12 of 1995 concerning Corrections (RUU PAS). Even though the bill is a carryover from the previous period.

Adies said that his party had written to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights five times to immediately start the discussion of the second level discussion. However, the government said it was not ready. In fact, the RUU PAS has been included in the 2021 Priority National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

"Commission III has already sent a letter to the government, but again the government has replied that it is not ready", said Adies, Wednesday, September 15.

According to him, the RUU PAS can slightly solve the problems that exist in correctional institutions (prisons), especially related to excess capacity or overcapacity of inmates. So it needs a comprehensive discussion with the government.

"We can't talk about this now, all upstream and downstream must be discussed", said Adies.

Adies assessed that the problem of overcapacity in prisons cannot be solved simply by building new prisons. Because, he said, there are still issues related to humanity that need to be resolved by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

"This takes care of so many people, the family approach must also be addressed first, the existing human resources are not ready to add more prisons", said Adies.

Previously, the House of Representatives asked the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to use this fire incident as momentum to immediately ratify the Correctional Bill so that issues related to overcapacity, facilities in prisons, and various other problems can be resolved properly.

"We hope that House of Representatives Commission III and the government will immediately sit down together to discuss this bill again, for the sake of improving prisons in the future. Because this is a humanitarian issue and is a common problem, it cannot be delayed too long", said Member of House of Representatives Commission III, Adde Rosi Khoerunnisa some time ago.