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he government’s decision to grant remission to corruption convicts has ignited controversy within society. Busyro Muqoddas, chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and a number of House of Representatives’ lawmakers challenge the policy, which they say contradicts the national commitment to the fight against corruption.

The debate surfaced after 427 out of 1,008 corruption convicts received remissions in conjunction with the 66th anniversary of Indonesian independence in August, with 19 of them immediately walking free. The government’s generosity marks a setback for the country’s war on graft, which is dubbed an extraordinary crime.

Similarly, to honor this year’s Idul Fitri celebration, a total of 44,652 prisoners, or one-third of the 133,379 convicts across the country, received remissions. A total of 1,229 of them were immediately released, including eight corruption convicts.  

The government claimed to have a strong legal argument to maintain the remission policy. Patrialis Akbar, the Law and Human Rights Minister, explained that granting remission is stipulated in Article 14 of Law No. 12/1995 on Corrections. The article acknowledges various rights of prisoners, including the right to remission, regardless of the crimes they committed. One of the aims of the article is to provide the prisoners an incentive in exchange for their good behavior.

In comparison, Norway offers a model on how to promote human rights in managing correctional affairs. The concept is how to make prison like a social hospital through offering relevant educational activities and other professional, tailor-made treatments to prisoners for their most immediate recovery, prior to their reintegration into society. The idea is reintegration, not punishment. The emphasis is on seeing prisons as normal society.

That’s why Halden prison in southeastern Norway, for example, has been made very luxurious. The prison’s facilities boast amenities such as a sound studio, jogging trails and a freestanding two-bedroom house where prisoners can host their families during overnight visits. Individual cells come with an en-suite bathroom, a flat-screen TV and various comforts. All prisoners have the right to receive remission, which allows them to seek early release after serving two thirds of their prison sentences.

In my impression during several visits to prisons in Norway, the conditions at Halden are similar to that of a three- or four-star hotel.

To manage prisons as a part of normal society is indeed the reflection of Norway’s commitment to upholding a number of international instruments that deal specifically with prisoners and conditions within prison. One of them is the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners (1990). These basic principles act as a reference to address various issues, concerns and problems concerning prisoners, especially in respect to granting remission.

They include: “All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings; there shall be no discrimination on the grounds of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status; all prisoners shall retain the human rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

It is therefore, a clear and transparent set of guidelines on the application of remission in accordance with those principles, which should be made both publicly available and be explained thoroughly to prisoners as early during their incarceration as possible.

The modality and principles may remind us what Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela said, namely: “No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

So, let us treat our prisoners with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings, and allow no discrimination in treating them for their reintegration into society, including a non-discriminatory policy in granting remission.

The writer is professor of law at Jakarta State University and former director general of human rights at the Law and Human Rights Ministry.