From doing time to `Hard Times': Prison library set to open

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 07/04/2009 1:05 PM  |  City

Cipinang Penitentiary will have its in-house library functioning on Monday, making it the first prison in the country to provide a full-fledged reading facility for inmates.

"This facility will, we hope, provide the inmates with knowledge and also help them pass the time," Triana Aryati, head of the penitentiary's office of correctional lessons, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

She added the penitentiary had long planned to provide a library for the inmates, but it was only after local media group Kompas Gramedia decided to contribute reading material did the idea come to fruition.

The library was officially opened on June 16, but Kompas Gramedia still has not set up a computerized cataloging and borrowing system, leaving the gates to the 6- by 10-meter room still locked, as with most of the doors in the complex.

"The library will open next week, but we will temporarily use a non-digital system to list the books and those borrowing them," said inmate and library manager Agustinus Ferry Sutanto.

He added 25 inmates would be chosen to manage the library, whose task would include cataloging the books and monitoring the borrowers, who would have an open area in front of the library to read in.

According to Agustinus, there are currently 1,200 books available at the library, most of them under the general knowledge category.

"Most of the books about politics and law, but there are also many books about practical knowledge, such as computer manuals, to help the readers gain more skills they can use after they're released," he said.

The number of books, however, will hardly satiate the reading needs of the prison's 3,000 inmates, a population that is already straining the 3-hectare complex.

"This complex was meant to house 1,000 prisoners," Triana said.

To resolve the problem, the library team came up with the idea of having the inmates take turns borrowing the books, based on either one of the three blocks in which those inmates' cells are located.

"On Monday's, for instance, it's the turn of Block 1 inmates to borrow a book, then the next day, Block 2, and so on," Agustinus said.

He added most inmates were excited about the prospect of having decent reading material.

"So many of them have asked me when this library will open," he said.

As if affirming his statement, a man in his 30s with an unkempt beard and the emaciated figure so common among the inmates approached the library's glass doors and gazed into the room with keen interest.

"Can't wait to borrow those books?" Triana asked him in a friendly tone.

"Yes, ma'am," he answered, grinning sheepishly.

"Those books about computers seem really good." (dis)

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.