Extreme Overcrowding in Indonesia and 'They' Almost Do Nothing but Jokingly Tweet to Support Caning

It is no doubt that prisons in Indonesia face the problem of overcrowding. Data from Correctional Directorate of the ministry of Law and Human Rights confirms that Per May 2018, prison in Indonesia is crowded by 201%. The number of prison population in Indonesia never shows a sign for reduction for the last 5 years.

Year	Detainees and Inmates	Prison Capacity
December 2013	160.063	113.150
December 2014	163.404	116.868
December 2015	176.754	121.871
December 2016	204.550	121.871
December 2017	232.081	123.997
May 2018	249.602	124.162

Based on the 2017 report of Correctional Directorate of the ministry of Law and Human Rights which was presented to Commision III on Law, Human Rights and Security in the house of representative on January 25th 2018 confirmed that throughout 2017, Indonesia has 161.401 people sentenced to imprisonment, while the number of people under supervised by Bapas (or Probation Board in Indonesia) was only 46.605 people. Based on this, we can conclude that In Indonesia Imprisonment is almost 5 times preferred to use than the others alternative to imprisonment. (this comparison prones to be higher, as 46.605 is included people who has served his prison sentences and has their conditional released).

World Prison Brief and UNODC have classified some catagories for prison overcrowding. There are 3 categories for prison overcrowding, 1) Overcrowding for 100% occupancy rate 2) Critical Overcrowding for above 120% occupancy rate 3) Extreme Overcrwoding for above 150% occupancy rate. The occupancy rate is prison population compared to prison capacity. Therefore, overcrowding situation in Indonesia has been in the most crucial stage, Extreme Overcrowding. It is obvious that Indonesia through the government and the house of representative need to do something to respond this. There are a lot things happened throughout 2017 related to prison. At least there were 6 prison riots in Indonesia throughout 2017, 3 prison riots in Prison Class II Jambi alone in January, March and September 2017 The occupancy rate in Prison Class II Jambi was 336%, and the problems that leaded to riots was crucial, it was only bacause of basic needs of the inmates such as water, meals and physical interaction. Other cases was prison escape, there were at least 30 prison escape in 2017, in which only 4 cases from prison with no overcrowding situation. 

It is really curcial to think on how to overcome this problem. The government and the house need to do something, moreover the governemnt and the house is currently in the deliberation if new bill of penal code, which they always say this effort is to reform the criminal law in Indonesia through the penal code that is never be amended since 100 years ago.

If we take a look on background paper of new bill of penal code which was proposed by the government, the idea to support alternative to imprisonment was once raised. Page 176 of the background paper said that the altenative to imprisonment needs to improved as the aim of sentencing is already shifted from deterrence to restorative. "Alternative to imprisonment is needed to reduce the destructive effect of imprisonment" therefore, it is good if we look at this background.

Unfortunately, we can not rely on the background paper, as it is the law that will regulate it all. And so sad, unfortunately the draft of new bill of penal code seems does not support the good intention of its background paper. Alternative to imprisonment written in draft of new penal code are only three, 1) supervision punishment, 2) community services and 3) intermittent sentence. All the three prones to be so hard to implement since it requires some conditions to apply (however the discussion of those conditions in the government and the house is never accountable).

The first draft of new bill of penal code (2015) said that supervison punishment was applicable for all the crimes which impose punishment no higher than 7 years imprisoment. The number of 7 years was from the academics workshop in 1986 that determined 7 years as the threshold to classify serious crimes. For community services, it was only applicable for the crimes that judge sentenced the offender for no higher than 6 months imprisonment. Our research concluded that it was only 59 crimes (2,17%) that can be sentenced to community service (as there were so many crimes with minimum setences in the 1st draft of new bill of penal code). And for the intermittent sentence was only applicable if judge sentenced the offender to no more than 12 months imprisonment. Our intial research has confirmed that out of 1251 crimes, 92% crimes was imposed with imprisonment. Therefore, the first draft of new bill of penal code did not really support the idea to scrap the destructive effect of imprisonment. 


It gets worse in the deliberation process. Throughout the discussion, in the latest draft (per May 2018) of the conditions for the application of alternative to imprisonment is stricter. For supervision punishment is only applicable for the crimes with maximum 5 years imprisonment as the punishment, for the community services and intermittent sentence, the condition is added, not only judged has to punish the offender with no higher than 6 months imprisonment for community services and no higher than 1 year imprisonment for intermittent sentence, but also they are applicable only for crimes with maximum 5 years imprisonment as the punishment. So that, the number of crimes can be punished with those alternative to imprisonment is lesser. It becomes worse since, we never know what is the reason for this change, was it based on an empirical research, or did they previously evaluate the implementation of current probation in Indonesia? We never know. It is questionable whether the goverment and the house really take a look on this or not.


We also criticize that the number of alternative to imprisonment offered by the draft is too little, only 3, meanwhile United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures/ Tokyo Rules recommends at least 11 forms of Alternatives to Imprisonment, and also the combination of the 11 are allowed. The National Alliance for the Reformation of Penal Code has proposed at least 20 forms of alternative to imprisonment. The Alliance submitted a truly comprehensive documment of the alternative draft of certain articles in the draft, including the material on altenative to imprisonment. We highlighted that alternative to imprisonment is highly needed, as we see extreme overcrowding is here, we spend around Rp 1.270.643.475.000 or more than $100.000 for the meal of inmates a year. We really need the government and the house to take a look seriously on this!

And Voila!!

Today, one of the member of working committee for the discussion of new bill of penal code tweeted mentioning the president whether they have to formulate various alternative to imprisonment. He highlighted the overcrowding phenomenon. His next tweet said, "What if (name his party) recommends caning just like Qanun Jinayah (islamic criminal law) in Aceh as one of the altenative of imprisonment?"

Dont really know it was joking or not, but to support caning which obviously violates the human rights --as  it is consider as torture and states, organizations the UN have condemned it (through the 2017 UPR) even your own government through the ministry of internal affairs already confirm that caning violates some laws in Indonesia-- in the time your team in the house and the government is failed to do something on alternative to imprisonment is not that wise.