Cipinang prison gets a new chief

Cipinang prison gets a new chief

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Justice installed yesterday a
new chief warden at Cipinang penitentiary in the aftermath of the
scandal surrounding the escape of businessman Eddy Tansil this
month.

Subari, with a long track record of managing correctional
facilities in Karawang, West Java, and Lubuklinggau, South
Sumatra, was installed yesterday in a ceremony led by Mohammad C.
Alamsyah Boer, the head of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of
Justice.

He replaced Mintardjo, who was removed on May 7, three days
after Tansil walked out of jail 18 years ahead of schedule.

Mintardjo was not present at the ceremony. He is currently
under police investigation but initial indications are that he
was not directly responsible for the jailbreak. However, 20 of
his staff have been named by police as suspects in the conspiracy
to allow Tansil to escape.

Alamsyah in his speech at the installation ceremony underlined
the two main tasks of wardens: to keep the inmates securely
locked up, and to supervise their rehabilitation process.

The two tasks, he said, are linked. "If the penitentiary is
not secure, you cannot rehabilitate the prisoners."

"Even the tiniest negligence and carelessness can be fatal to
the image of Indonesian justice," he said.

Subari, like Mintardjo, graduated from the Academy of
Rehabilitation Science in Jakarta in 1969.

When asked by reporters how he would make sure there was no
second scandal of this type, he answered that he would first have
to talk to his subordinates.

Tansil was serving a 20-year jail term when he escaped. He was
convicted of corruption in 1994 for embezzling Rp 1.3 trillion
($620 million) from state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia
(Bapindo). A massive manhunt is now underway, and the authorities
have contacted 119 foreign governments for help following
suggestions that he had already fled the country. (16)