Minister proposes city detention to ease jail overcrowding

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 02/19/2008 11:40 AM  |  Headlines

Overcrowding in the country's jails has prompted the government to call on police and prosecutors to be more discerning when arresting suspects.

Individuals being detained while on trial account for 40 percent of the total prison population.

"The police and prosecutors can also consider city-detention as an alternative for suspects awaiting court rulings," Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Mattalata told a meeting with House of Representatives Commission III overseeing law, human rights and security here Monday.

"The point is to reduce the number of detainees because they make up half of the total prisoners."

He said there were 140,000 detainees across the country, living in total jail space designed for up to 80,000 persons. He added the overpopulation in penitentiaries could grow worse because prisoner numbers were increasing by an average of 10 to 15 percent a year while the space available in jails was enlarged by only 6 percent.

As a result, correctional institutions have met with a number of problems, including prisoner health issues, in their efforts to rehabilitate them. Some 893 convicts and detainees died, mainly due to health problems, in 2007. The mortality rate increased by almost 200 percent from 2002.

Criminologist Adrianus Meliala said recently that although city- or house-detention could help reduce the population in penitentiaries, it had the potential to encourage collusion among police, prosecutors and judges.

Mattalata said his institution had introduced a new management system that was expected to improve prisoner behavior and see them released earlier.

It includes a rolling system for guards that sees them rotated every two weeks so as to discourage them from building criminal relationships with prisoners.

"We see that corruption and drug-related convicts are among the most dangerous inmates. They are good at persuading people," said the minister.

"By having a 'tour of duty' among prison guards, we can help prevent them from assisting convicts in illegal actions. The job of prison guards is to take care of inmates and it is not the other way around," he said.

Trimedya Panjaitan, a legislator of the Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said local administrations could help run prisons.

"The ministry should not rely on its own limited budget to build more penitentiaries. They can seek the cooperation of local administrations as they also hold same the responsibility for prisoners' lives," he said.

Mattalata said he had taken the proposal into consideration and that local administrations could help provide vacant land for more prisons.

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