drugs and narcotics contribute to a huge portion of prison population, with 60% of
them are drug pushers and drug users.
Dr. Luhut elaborated further that such excess of 105 percent had brought implications
to several unfortunate events, namely disturbance to security, order, health and
effectively of correctional process. In Indonesia, budget to provide meals for inmates
is IDR 20,000 (USD 1.4) per day or IDR 6.666 (USD 0.46) for a single meal. This is not
a big amount nor decent in term of nutrition, but nonetheless the budget is quite
huge. Indonesia must allocate no less than IDR 1.6 trillions (USD 112 millions) annually
for meals alone. As a result, one of the conclusions in the discussion is that if
overcrowding issue in penitentiary is not solved in a quick and serious manner,
disaster in humanity and havoc in law may occur at the same time.
Dr. Luhut stated that according to Article 4 of law Number 2 Year 1995 concerning
Correctional Institution and Article 18 Government Regulation Number 27 Year 1983
concerning Implementation of Penal Procedural Law (KUHAP), a LAPAS (penitentiary)
or Rutan (Detention House) shall be located in Kotamadya (municipality) and
Kabupaten (District). Thus, there should be one penitentiary and one detention house
in every municipality and district. To be precise, since there are 415 district 93
municipality in Indonesia, the number penitentiary and detention house should be
2x(415+93) which is 1016 units. This is not the case as penitentiary and detention
house are not as many as required. He said that it is mainly because of the limited
budget of the state. Fulfilling the required number however, will not solve the
problem as the causes are not single. Therefore, overcoming the issue of
overcrowding by establishing more penitentiary and detention house may not be a
correct and good solution in relation with necessities.
5. Condition of Correctional Institution in Human Rights Perspective
Condition and situation of prison in Indonesia which was described by Dr. Luhut as
‘deep puddle’ is a violation of both law and human rights in the form of negligence or
omission. At any time, the government can be or is susceptible to be legally sued for
violations of law and human rights.
There are several laws and regulations being violated by such negligence, such as:
1) Law Number 39 Year 1999 concerning Human Rights
2) Law Number 12 Year 2005 concerning the Ratification on International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
3) Law Number 5 Year 1998 concerning the Convention Against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
4) The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
5) UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders76
6) Law Number 12 Year 1995 concerning Correctional Institution
76
Held in Geneva and approved by the Economic and Social Council in resolutions of 31 July 1957 and 13 May
1977
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