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.