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Activists unconvinced new law can reduce prison overcrowding
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A burned-out cell at the Tangerang Class I Penitentiary in Banten is pictured on Sept. 8, 2021, following a fire that killed 49 inmates. (AFP/Handout/Law and Human Rights Ministry)
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awmakers recently passed a new law on the country's correctional system with the hopes of ending prison overcrowding. Activists, however, remain unconvinced, saying the legislation does not solve the underlying problem of the excessive incarceration of drug offenders, who have long dominated the inmate population.
The House of Representatives amended the outdated 1995 Correctional Facitilies Law in a plenary session on Thursday to help address the poor management of prisons and their insufficient facilities and human resources.
Adies Kadir, deputy chairman of the House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said the newly passed law could reduce prison capacity by about 30 percent by making it easier for inmates to get parole.
“There will be a parole monitoring period to assess whether [the inmate] could reoffend or not; that's the duty of the prison," Adies said as reported by kompas.id.
The revision does not distinguish between the eligibility for parole and sentence remissions of offenders of extraordinary crimes like corruption, drug crimes and terrorism, and those of other crimes. This automatically removes the stringent requirements for inmates convicted of extraordinary crimes, including one that requires them to help law enforcement officers close their cases.
The concept has long been rejected by anticorruption activists who argue that reducing prison overcrowding is not as simple as granting early releases or remissions.
Chronic prison overcrowding, exacerbated by underfunding and understaffing, has led to numerous prison riots and escape attempts. Among the most notorious cases are the 2021 deadly fire that broke out in the Tangerang Class I Penitentiary in Banten and killed 49 inmates — mostly drug offenders — and the 2018 bloody revolt at the Kelapa Dua Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) detention center in Depok, West Java.
