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No conjugal visits for inmates, says minister
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Inmates are seen behind bars at Idi Detention Center in Kampung Jalan village, Aceh Timur regency, in May. (Antara/Syifa Yulinnas)
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onjugal visits for prison inmates are not likely to be allowed in the near future as the country continues to face overcapacity problems in almost all of its penitentiaries, a minister has said.
“Our priority is solving prison overcapacity. That’s what we have to focus on,” Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Noim Ba’asyir, a terror convict serving a sentence at Pamekasan penitentiary in East Java, demanded a private area for him and his wife.
He provoked other inmates to support his demand, causing him to be transferred to Tuban penitentiary, also in East Java, on Sunday.
The ministry’s director general of penitentiaries, I Wayan Dusak, told The Jakarta Post that the ministry did not have enough resources to provide private booths in penitentiaries and said there was no legal basis for such a move.
He added that such spaces could not be provided without proper supporting regulations, as sex-related facilities for inmates might create an image that prostitution was occurring secretly inside penitentiaries. (wnd/ags)
