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Calls mount for prison reform after fire
A fire at the Tangerang Class 1 Penitentiary in Banten on Wednesday killed at least 44 inmates, sparking fresh calls for the government to take responsibility amid persisting overcrowding problems in the country's prison system.
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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 41 inmates. (AFP/Handout/Law and Human Rights Ministry)
T
hree more inmates died on Thursday after having been treated at Tangerang Regional General Hospital (RSUD Tangerang) following a fire at the Tangerang Class 1 Penitentiary in Banten that had killed scores of drug inmates a day earlier, sparking fresh calls for accountability of the government.
The latest fatalities bring the total death toll of the tragic incident, suspected to have been caused by an “electrical short circuit” in one of the cell blocks at the facility, to 44 people, including two foreign nationals.
The incident has called attention to overcrowding in Indonesian prisons, partly driven by the government’s tough stance on drug use, with activists calling on key officials to take responsibility and resign from their posts following the incident.
“It is appropriate for Law and Human Rights Minister [Yasonna H. Laoly] and Correction Center Director General [Reinhard Silitonga] to step down from their positions,” Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This kind of incident should never happen again,” he added.
Yasonna’s tenure as the law and human rights minister, which started in 2014 after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo appointed the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician into the Cabinet during his first term, has been marred with multiple prison incidents.
In 2016, prison riots broke out at the Malabero state detention center in Bengkulu, which killed five prisoners. A year later, around 450 prisoners fled from the Sialang Bungkuk detention center in Pekanbaru, Riau, as a result of chronic overcrowding and understaffing at the facility.
