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Editorial: Behind the prison walls
We hear all kind of stories about life behind bars
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e hear all kind of stories about life behind bars. Mostly unpleasant or horrific, they reflect the rough conditions of prison life. Our views of prison life are shaped by the many books written and movies made on the subject. And society seems to have accepted that by and large, as bad as life seems inside prison, we should not interfere. Let it be. Those inside deserve what they get.
But now we are told there is a totally different kind of life in prison to what the books and films tell us.
And we learn this courtesy of an impromptu inspection by a special team commissioned by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to look into corruption in the judiciary, and also from the cover story of the latest issue of Tempo magazine. Some convicts, unlike most other inmates, actually lead a privileged life inside our prisons.
Socialite and lobbyist Artalyta Suryani, according to the reports, has a spacious 64-square-meter room all to herself, complete with amenities one might usually find in a five-star hotel – air-conditioning, leather couch, work desk and a desktop computer – in the Pondok Bambu Women’s Penitentiary in East Jakarta. When the team visited her Sunday, she was being treated by a beautician. Another inmate has karaoke equipment in her room. Given the facilities these rooms come with, you could hardly call them cells.
What is most amazing about Artalyta’s story is the fact that despite serving a five-year sentence for bribing a senior prosecutor at the Attorney General’s Office, she apparently continues with her corrupt practices, paying off the prison guards to ensure she has the life amenities she was used to outside.
She is even allowed to run her business from the inside, with not only her employees visiting and reporting to her on a daily basis, but business clients also meeting her in jail. The Justice and Human Rights Ministry defended its decision to let her manage her business because she employs 85,000 people. Whatever happened to the principle equality before the law?
The revelation is actually not all that surprising. For years we have heard stories that these things were going on all the time, with rumors of some people continuing to lead a luxurious lifestyle behind bars, for the right price. There have been allegations that many high-profile criminals, particularly those serving time for corruption, were even free to come and go as they pleased.
But this is the first time that an impromptu visit has caught inmates actually enjoying the facilities.
And Tempo’s investigative reporting is irrefutable proof of the kind of games being played inside many of our prisons.
On Tuesday, the director of the Pondok Bambu detention center was replaced in the wake of the controversy. But that is only one of dozens of penitentiaries across the nation where similar practices are believed to be taking place. The issue will soon die down, but the practice will likely resume before the next discovery, whenever that happens.
Artalyta is making a complete mockery of the ongoing antigraft campaign and of the fine work that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which sent her to jail, has done all these years.
The revelation raises serious questions about the deterrent effect that jailing corruptors has on others still out there: Almost none. On the contrary, the message Artalyta sends to the outside world is that if you are going to corrupt, do it in a big way, for if you are ever caught, you can still bribe your way to a life of luxury behind bars.
