Justice Ministry to Receive More Funds to Address Prison Overcrowding
Jakarta. The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is set to receive extra funding of more than Rp 1 trillion ($75.5 million) this year to tackle issues such as overcrowding in prisons and detention centers across Indonesia.
Concerns about overcapacity have reemerged in the past few months, after riots broke out among inmates at several prisons.
About Rp 712 billion of the Rp 1.3 trillion allocated in the 2016 revised state budget will be used to develop overcrowded prisons and detention facilities, the ministry's secretary general Bambang Rantam Sariwanto said.
"The allocation is aimed at making improvements for inmates, including those who have committed drug offenses," Bambang said on Tuesday (07/06).
Another Rp 390 billion will be allocated for operational expenses, while about Rp 197 billion is assigned to develop industrial prisons.
In April, a riot and fire broke out at the Banceuy Narcotics Prison in Bandung, West Java, on April 23, severely damaging the front of the facility.
The ministry's director general for penitentiary affairs, I Wayan Dusak, has since admitted that the prison had been filled to overcapacity, accommodating about 1,000 inmates despite having only 10 prison wardens.
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