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Jakarta Post

Prisons still overcrowded, lack skilled staff

Seize the day: An inmate learns to cut hair while serving time at the Cipinang Penitentiary in Jakarta

Ina Parlina and Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Jayapura
Thu, March 10, 2016

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Prisons still overcrowded, lack skilled staff Seize the day: An inmate learns to cut hair while serving time at the Cipinang Penitentiary in Jakarta. The high-security prison has housed high-profile convicts like Tommy Soeharto, the son of former president Soeharto, and, more recently, fugitive and money-launderer Labora Sitorus. The prison accommodates about 3,000 inmates, or twice its actual capacity.(JP/Seto Wardhana) (JP/Seto Wardhana)

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span class="inline inline-center">Seize the day: An inmate learns to cut hair while serving time at the Cipinang Penitentiary in Jakarta. The high-security prison has housed high-profile convicts like Tommy Soeharto, the son of former president Soeharto, and, more recently, fugitive and money-launderer Labora Sitorus. The prison accommodates about 3,000 inmates, or twice its actual capacity.(JP/Seto Wardhana)

The repeated failure by prison officials to keep convicted money-launderer and former low-ranking police officer Labora Sitorus in his cell has not only raised questions about how such failures could occur in that specific case, but also about the state of the country'€™s penitentiary system overall.

Reform of the penitentiary system has long been considered. However, jails across the country still continue to face the same old problems: overcapacity, a lack of properly trained prison staff, inadequate infrastructure and poor monitoring within prisons.

Prisons and detention centers across Indonesia continue to endure overwhelming capacity demands, with an average of 75 percent overcrowding, according to data from the official website of the Law and Human Rights Ministry'€™s directorate general of correctional institutions. Indonesia has 477 penitentiaries and detention centers overseen by 33 regional offices with a total capacity of nearly 118,954 inmates, but currently holding a total of 207,697 detainees and convicts.

The data also shows that only eight regional offices do not suffer from overcapacity, including West Papua where Labora was supposed to have been detained inside its Sorong Penitentiary. The other seven are Yogyakarta, Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku and Papua.

Jakarta'€™s jails saw the highest overcrowding rates in March with a combined overcapacity of 617 percent. In total, seven prisons in Jakarta currently house 42,221 inmates although their total capacity should only be 5,891 inmates.

Meanwhile, as of February, there were only a total of 8,502 prison guards in Jakarta'€™s prisons.

Director general of correctional institutions I Wayan K. Dusak said the difficulty in getting Labora back behind bars had demonstrated the poor levels of training among prison officials and guards.

'€œEven [outsourced] security services in hotels are better [than our guards]; they receive a kind of three-month training, while we don'€™t,'€ Wayan said on Saturday.

According to Wayan, a lack of funding was also among the reasons why reform had been slow as they could not introduce better technology in penitentiaries across the country.

However, the directorate general of correctional institution is determined to continue with the ongoing reform of institutions within its remit.

'€œThis is a very complex issue; therefore, the results cannot be seen immediately. It needs time,'€ Wayan said, while adding that support from other law-enforcement agencies was also essential.

Labora was flown to Jakarta from Dominique Edward Osok Airport in Sorong, West Papua, on Monday. Having been sentenced to 15 years for illegal logging and money laundering in 2014, the former Raja Ampat Police officer will serve his sentence at Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta.

As earlier reported, Labora became a fugitive from the West Papua Police and the Law and Human Rights Ministry after he fled from his home on Jl. Tampa Garam, Sorong, on Friday. Labora escaped as authorities were about to transfer him to the Cipinang prison from the Class II-B Sorong Penitentiary, where he was supposed to be serving his sentence.

A joint security team comprising 623 military and police personnel was deployed for Labora'€™s transfer on Friday. However, he managed to escape shortly before the security forces arrived at his home, which also functioned as a wood-processing factory owned by his timber company, PT Rotua, on Jl. Tampa Garam.

Labora hid for three days until he surrendered to police on Monday.

Besides Labora, another notorious low-ranking former government official and graft convict Gayus Tambunan has also been known for his repeated illegal excursions while supposedly locked up behind bars. Last September, Gayus was spotted having lunch at a Jakarta restaurant with two women while he was supposed to be serving his sentence in Sukamiskin Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java. At that time, authorities said Gayus made a lunch stop at a restaurant on his way back to Sukamiskin after attending his divorce hearing in Jakarta.

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