City may help govt build more prison

City may help govt build more prison

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso and justice minister Hamid Awaluddin
met here on Thursday to discuss the possibility of building a new
prison in the capital.

Briefing the press after the meeting at City Hall, Sutiyoso
said that his administration had agreed to help the government
construct a new prison at the Salemba prison in Central Jakarta.

"The minister asked for our assistance to build a prison as
the existing one is already overcrowded," said Sutiyoso.

The city currently has only one prison, which now has 4,200
inmates, far above the ideal number of 700.

Building a prison is legally the duty of the central
government, in this case the Ministry of Justice and Human
Rights, but minister Hamid requested the city administration on
Thursday to help build one.

Sutiyoso said that he agreed with Hamid's proposal and would
allocate funds for the project from the 2006 city budget.

He did not mention the amount to be allocated, saying only
that it would depend on the financial condition of his
administration.

According to the governor, Hamid offered 10 hectares of land
in Tangerang municipality for the new prison should the city find
the Salemba prison compound too small to construct a new
building.

"This (Thursday) evening, I will visit Salemba prison to
determine whether it is possible to build a new prison there," he
said.

Jakarta, which has a total population of around 8.5 million,
is among the rich administrations in the country. The city's 2005
budget, for example, stood at over Rp 14 trillion (around US$1.4
billion).

Sutiyoso is planning to raise the budget to nearly Rp 17
trillion in 2006.

The city administration had previously helped the police to
construct a drug detention center at Jakarta Police Headquarters
and purchased a number of patrol cars.