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small outdoor kitchen was installed in front of the cell of terrorist convict Abu Bakar Ba’asyir in Batu Penitentiary on Nusakambangan Island, off the southern coast of Central Java, one afternoon in late January.

Ba’asyir and his fellow terrorist convicts set up the kitchen and brought in their own food after they declined to eat prison meals over concerns that the ingredients might not be halal.

As those prisoner-cooked meals were also distributed to other inmates for free, the authorities apparently had no reservations about Ba’asyir having his own kitchen, particularly when prison managers were struggling on a daily basis to find ways to feed the inmates.

Hungry inmates mean trouble, and the Ba’asyir kitchen story is an illustration of how prison authorities have to compromise the rules to keep hunger at bay amid disturbing revelations about the huge piles of debt prisons have to bear.

Legislators were taken aback during a hearing with prison authorities on Tuesday over a demand for Rp 228 billion (US$17 million) in additional funding to pay for unpaid debts logged since 2014 for feeding about 193,000 inmates nationwide.

The debts, equal to the cost of constructing 228 modest six-class elementary schools in Java, does not include Rp 9.3 billion of unpaid electricity bills, and has again amplified the already messy situation of prison management that is plagued by pervasive overcrowding and corruption.

The director general of penitentiaries, I Wayan Dusak, insisted the debts should be immediately settled this year otherwise no suppliers would be willing to cooperate with prison authorities, thus putting at risk the flow of meals to inmates.

“We’ve squeezed spending to the bones, but still we cannot avoid unpaid bills because the prices of food and the inflow of new inmates are increasing at a faster rate than our budget,” said Dusak.

The directorate is to receive about Rp 3.6 trillion of taxpayers’ money this year, about the same as in previous years.

But for the past 10 months, Dusak added, the system has received 10,000 new inmates, the highest increase in recent years, flowing into penitentiaries that are already accommodating three times their design capacities.

The government allocates Rp 26,000 (less than $2) to provide inmates with three meals per day, a mattress and a sarong.

Aside from rice and minced vegetables, the meals usually consist of protein in the form of either cheap belanak fish (a local Bluespot mullet), tofu, tempeh, or egg.

“During the holy month of Ramadhan, the cost can go higher because aside from higher food prices, we are also forced to provide puddings,” said Dusak.

The additional funds to settle the debts are on top of the Rp 1.3 trillion earlier demanded by the directorate general to be used this year to reduce overcrowding by building new cells and facilities.

Attempts by the directorate, which is under the auspices of the Law and Human Rights Ministry, to convince lawmakers and fellow government officials to approve the needed funds are likely to go unheeded because of the limited state budget.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has instructed his ministers to cut at least Rp 50 trillion from routine spending following a likely shortfall in tax collection this year caused by the lingering impact of a global economic slowdown.

“The Finance Ministry has conveyed to us that it will be difficult to approve additional money for penitentiaries this year because the state budget is already in grave deficit,” said legislator Adies Kadir of Golkar, who is also a member of the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing security and legal affairs.

However, ministries and agencies are still trying their luck to get more funds through the upcoming revision of the 2016 state budget, which will be approved by the end of this month.

“All law enforcement institutions such as the National Police, the Attorney General’s Office [AGO] and the National Narcotics Agency [BNN] have demanded larger budgets. Each has come up with what they consider urgent. It is just overwhelming,” said Adies.

The unpaid food bills have come to light amid an unresolved situation of overcrowding that is plaguing 477 penitentiaries and detention centers nationwide.

This has led to deadly riots, while brawls involving inmates have become commonplace.

The most recent incident took place in April at Banceuy Penitentiary, West Java, during which prisoners became enraged after a drug convict was sent to an isolation cell and killed himself.

A mob set fire to prison offices and two ambulances. The riot was the sixth such incident in the past two months.

“You have this overcrowding and then there is risk to the food supply for inmates. This is just a perfect storm waiting to happen,” said legislator Ikhsan Sulistyo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who is also a Commission III member.

“We are facing no other options than to prioritize funds to resolve the unpaid food bills. The problem scares me,” he said.
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