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JAKARTA
POST, 22 Juli 2013
Hundreds of inmates, including several convicted
terrorists, escaped from Tanjung Gusta Penitentiary in Medan, North Sumatra
last week by storming a main gate and setting the prison’s offices ablaze.
Police have said that they are still hunting down four terrorist convicts and
have recaptured 93 prisoners. Two prison guards, two inmates and an
unidentified individual died in the riot, which erupted after a power blackout
at the prison.
In 2010, graft suspect Gayus Tambunan bribed the prison warder and guards in exchange for the privilege of a weekend break to attend a tennis tournament in Bali. He also admitted to overseas jaunts while he was supposed to have been behind bars, using a fake passport. In 2011, prosecutors, an attorney and a prison employee were implicated in a convict’s scheme to have someone else serve her sentence at Bojonegoro prison in East Java.
More speculation has been raised by repeated scandals that continue to plague Indonesia’s penal system, such as the power of money and political intervention.
The recent prison uprising suggests that prison no longer serves as a deterrence that encourages inmates to return to the right path. Instead, prison has become a school for criminals to enhance their skills. Holistic prison reform is a must, involving NGOs, to initiate the internal reform of the penal system.
No matter how seriously and strongly the government attempts reform and change, it will remain far from satisfactory without taking independent institutions like NGOs into account.
NGOs serve to foster greater transparency in the management of prisons. The need for transparency is underlined not simply to prevent collusion between staff and inmates but also to democratize prisons. It is no secret that Indonesia’s houses of detention are undemocratic with wealthy convicts paying for special treatment in prison.
Undemocratic treatment in prisons has resulted in privileges and “immunity” that particular inmates enjoy in jail. While such special treatment destabilizes the places of detention for inmates, guards and prison officials are often forced into compromising circumstances.
The involvement of NGO activists in the management of prisons might enhance the moral force of prison officials who are frequently under pressure and threat by visitors, particularly powerful people. Wardens are intimidated when visitors such as lawmakers abuse their high-ranking status to get their own way. Bolstered by their experience in advocacy, the NGO activists in their efforts to assist prison staff could easily identify the procedural breaches and subtle maneuvers politicians and friends of high-profile graft suspects make.
In response to the probable political intervention of high-profile graft suspects, the measure taken by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to build holding cells in the basement of its building in South Jakarta should be highly appreciated and urgently followed by other prisons. Transparency and equality before the law would be guaranteed as high-profile graft suspects remained under the supervision of the country’s most trusted antigraft institution.
The government needs to set up better monitoring and coordinating systems. There are loopholes in the administration, such as the manual database system. Building an integrated online database system from the police all the way to the prisons is necessary. The Law and Human Rights Ministry is required to gather data about how prisons and detention houses operate from inmates and guards. This could be done, for instance, through distributing questionnaires to obtain such information and refer to the results in discussions on human rights, medical and other situations at prisons.
The questionnaires might include specific questions about problems in prisons raised by committee members, but they might also allow prisoners to comment freely on their treatment. Short-term inmates, lifers, detainees at detentions houses and guards would all be allowed to respond to the surveys.
It would be crucial to pay attention to discuss the extent of the questioning and examine how to conduct the studies so that prisoners could comment frankly without fear of reprisal from guards. Such transparent information would be non-compromised since many people are angry that prisoners convicted of corruption and drug offenses are being treated with kid gloves when other prisoners have to share a cell with 20 other inmates.
Amnesty International has repeatedly criticized Indonesia’s detention facilities and prisons often do not meet the United Nations minimum rules on the treatment of prisoners, citing torture and other forms of ill treatment in various detention centers.
Humanizing and educating inmates, lifers, detainees and wardens should also be integrated into any attempts to reform the country’s prisons. Indonesia could learn from Iran in terms of prisoner-empowerment activities. In Iran, inmates can enjoy reading books since their houses of detention are equipped with libraries. In Iran there is a cultural deputy in the Office of Prisons. They have set up and directed many libraries in prisons. Despite widespread criticism of the current treatment of political prisoners in the Islamist nation, Iranian prisons still apply intellectual empowerment for their inmates and detainees.
Indonesia’s prisons could work together with Islamic boarding schools where their kyai (male religious teachers) are very experienced in transforming their students into devout Muslims. Adopting the principles of parenting in the Islamic boarding schools, the country’s prisons must take a slow-but-sure approach to transforming prisoners into better and more responsible human beings instead of leaning upon instant methods such as the mushrooming of motivation training. ●
In 2010, graft suspect Gayus Tambunan bribed the prison warder and guards in exchange for the privilege of a weekend break to attend a tennis tournament in Bali. He also admitted to overseas jaunts while he was supposed to have been behind bars, using a fake passport. In 2011, prosecutors, an attorney and a prison employee were implicated in a convict’s scheme to have someone else serve her sentence at Bojonegoro prison in East Java.
More speculation has been raised by repeated scandals that continue to plague Indonesia’s penal system, such as the power of money and political intervention.
The recent prison uprising suggests that prison no longer serves as a deterrence that encourages inmates to return to the right path. Instead, prison has become a school for criminals to enhance their skills. Holistic prison reform is a must, involving NGOs, to initiate the internal reform of the penal system.
No matter how seriously and strongly the government attempts reform and change, it will remain far from satisfactory without taking independent institutions like NGOs into account.
NGOs serve to foster greater transparency in the management of prisons. The need for transparency is underlined not simply to prevent collusion between staff and inmates but also to democratize prisons. It is no secret that Indonesia’s houses of detention are undemocratic with wealthy convicts paying for special treatment in prison.
Undemocratic treatment in prisons has resulted in privileges and “immunity” that particular inmates enjoy in jail. While such special treatment destabilizes the places of detention for inmates, guards and prison officials are often forced into compromising circumstances.
The involvement of NGO activists in the management of prisons might enhance the moral force of prison officials who are frequently under pressure and threat by visitors, particularly powerful people. Wardens are intimidated when visitors such as lawmakers abuse their high-ranking status to get their own way. Bolstered by their experience in advocacy, the NGO activists in their efforts to assist prison staff could easily identify the procedural breaches and subtle maneuvers politicians and friends of high-profile graft suspects make.
In response to the probable political intervention of high-profile graft suspects, the measure taken by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to build holding cells in the basement of its building in South Jakarta should be highly appreciated and urgently followed by other prisons. Transparency and equality before the law would be guaranteed as high-profile graft suspects remained under the supervision of the country’s most trusted antigraft institution.
The government needs to set up better monitoring and coordinating systems. There are loopholes in the administration, such as the manual database system. Building an integrated online database system from the police all the way to the prisons is necessary. The Law and Human Rights Ministry is required to gather data about how prisons and detention houses operate from inmates and guards. This could be done, for instance, through distributing questionnaires to obtain such information and refer to the results in discussions on human rights, medical and other situations at prisons.
The questionnaires might include specific questions about problems in prisons raised by committee members, but they might also allow prisoners to comment freely on their treatment. Short-term inmates, lifers, detainees at detentions houses and guards would all be allowed to respond to the surveys.
It would be crucial to pay attention to discuss the extent of the questioning and examine how to conduct the studies so that prisoners could comment frankly without fear of reprisal from guards. Such transparent information would be non-compromised since many people are angry that prisoners convicted of corruption and drug offenses are being treated with kid gloves when other prisoners have to share a cell with 20 other inmates.
Amnesty International has repeatedly criticized Indonesia’s detention facilities and prisons often do not meet the United Nations minimum rules on the treatment of prisoners, citing torture and other forms of ill treatment in various detention centers.
Humanizing and educating inmates, lifers, detainees and wardens should also be integrated into any attempts to reform the country’s prisons. Indonesia could learn from Iran in terms of prisoner-empowerment activities. In Iran, inmates can enjoy reading books since their houses of detention are equipped with libraries. In Iran there is a cultural deputy in the Office of Prisons. They have set up and directed many libraries in prisons. Despite widespread criticism of the current treatment of political prisoners in the Islamist nation, Iranian prisons still apply intellectual empowerment for their inmates and detainees.
Indonesia’s prisons could work together with Islamic boarding schools where their kyai (male religious teachers) are very experienced in transforming their students into devout Muslims. Adopting the principles of parenting in the Islamic boarding schools, the country’s prisons must take a slow-but-sure approach to transforming prisoners into better and more responsible human beings instead of leaning upon instant methods such as the mushrooming of motivation training. ●
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