JAKARTA: Substandard conditions and overcrowding in Indonesian prisons are leading inmates to bribe wardens to move into luxury cells, or to be able to create their own.
“Prison conditions impel inmates who can afford it to make their cells more bearable or comfortable,” Anggara Suwahju, executive director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, told Arab News on Friday.
Wardens are susceptible to bribery due to low salaries and a lack of power when dealing with well-connected politicians and high-ranking government officials convicted of crimes, said Ali Aranoval, director of the Center for Detention Studies.
Last week, a head warden and his subordinate at Sukamiskin prison in the city of Bandung were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes from inmates who wanted to occupy a cell with relatively luxurious amenities.
Footage recorded by officers of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) during the arrest showed a cell fitted with air-conditioning, a flat-screen TV, a private washroom with a water heater and shower, and a small kitchen with a sink and refrigerator.
KPK Deputy Chairman Laode Muhammad Syarif said the arrest confirmed rumors of cells “for sale.”
The KPK also found that inmates could pay to have longer visiting hours, keep smartphones and conduct business from inside the prison, he added.
“Sukamiskin is a very high-profile prison, and it provides a general picture of all prisons in Indonesia,” Syarif said. Two convicts were arrested for allegedly bribing wardens to get special treatment.
Aranoval said part of the problem is Indonesia’s criminal justice system, which considers incarceration the only correctional method, resulting in overcrowded prisons.
Meanwhile, the government is unable to establish prisons with basic minimum treatment for inmates, he added.
“Institutionalizing inmates is meant to confine them, but they shouldn’t be deprived of their basic rights,” he told Arab News.
Wardens are often powerless, and have to follow orders from the top when handling politically connected convicts, Aranoval said. “But when preferential treatment is exposed, wardens are the first to get blamed,” he added.
