Escapees captured

BANDAR LAMPUNG, Lampung: Three of the eight prisoners who escaped from the Kota Agung prison last week have been captured.

Chief of the Bandar Lampung police precinct, Col. Didi Kusumayadi, said yesterday the three had been returned to the prison and were being kept under close surveillance.

"We are determined to recapture all the escapees soon because otherwise they will cause unrest," he said. He identified those still at large as Bambang Supriyanto, Supri, Ibrahim, Sudirosi and Irfan.

Chief of the provincial office of the justice ministry, Soejagoes, said it is difficult to guard prisoners because, he added, it is the nature of convicts to try to escape.

Eddy Rifai, a criminologist at Lampung University, speculated that the prisoners had broken out because they had not been given the opportunity to satisfy their sexual needs. He proposed that convicts be allowed to receive visits from their wives.

Sociologist Soleman Biasane Taneko of the same university said that prisoners should be made work in order that they be kept busy. This, in turn, would help them avoid stress, he said. (rms)