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he Law and Human Rights Ministry is focusing its attention on making it easier for drug convicts to get remission after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo recently rejected a proposal to do so on graft prisoners.

The compromised solution is part of the ministry’s plan to revise a 2012 regulation on remission for drug, terrorism and corruption convicts.

The revision currently excludes easing up remission requirements for drug and graft convicts after Jokowi’s rejection due to urgencies related to the two crimes.

The number of graft cases remains high with convicted politicians still trying to run for office after having served time in prison.

The government and the House of Representatives are also deliberating revisions on the terrorism law, which is set on closer surveillance and investigations on suspected terrorists. The plan to make remission easier for terrorist convicts will contradict the escalating efforts to combat terrorism.

Earlier the ministry insisted that the plan be implemented on all convicts of the three extraordinary crimes to solve overcapacity problems in Indonesia’s prisons, but it received strong criticism from members of the public after it failed to prove that convicts of graft and terrorist cases were majority occupants of prisons.

Reports show that 60 percent of the nearly 200,000 prisoners put in 477 penitentiaries, which have a maximum capacity of 118,000 inmates, are drug convicts, while the remaining portion comprises convicts of general crimes such as murder, thievery and fraud.

Additionally, data from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) revealed that as of July 2016, the number of graft convicts is no more than 3,801 people in penitentiaries across the country.

Meanwhile, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) claims there are only around 204 terrorists being jailed as of February 2016.

Under the current regulation, convicts of graft, terrorist and drug cases have to work with law enforcement institutions with the justice collaborator requirement in order to be eligible for sentence cuts, but the ministry said that the regulation violated convicts’ rights to get remissions.

The ministry wants to scrap the requirement in the draft revision of the 2012 regulation, making it easier for convicts to apply for sentence cuts.

“A number of law professors told us that overcapacity [in prisons] is not related to corruption cases. The point is the revision will focus on drug cases,” said Akbar Hadi, a spokesperson from the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s Directorate General of Penitentiaries.

Akbar said he had yet to hear from the team handling the law revision regarding the reasons behind the ministry’s decision to also exclude convicts of terrorist cases in the revision plan.

“It is important to have a legal basis to justify a decision that convicts of drug cases don’t have to fulfill the justice collaborator [requirement] for drug users, not for drug dealers,” the spokesman said.

The ministry said the existence of tough requirements to get remissions for drug convicts has made them stay in prisons longer and that such a situation has worsened the country’s prison overcapacity problems.

“Prisons are also not an ideal place for drug convicts to undergo rehabilitation programs,” he said.

The 2009 Narcotics Law introduced a rehabilitation program for drug users that would put them in rehabilitation centers instead of being sent to prison.

However, problems remain, according to the ministry, as many rehabilitation centers are not yet ready to house drug convicts, leaving the ministry with no choice but to still send drug users to prison.

Separately, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) agreed with the ministry’s plan, saying it could reduce the number of drug users in prisons in the future.

“If that’s the decision taken by the ministry then the BNN will comply with it,” BNN spokesman Slamet Pribadi said.