Government to name special prison for drug offenders

JAKARTA (JP): Still smarting from a recent clash between prisoners in Cipinang prison, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Baharuddin Lopa reaffirmed on Tuesday a plan to isolate drug offenders in a separate penitentiary.

"We have planned to keep drug convicts from other prisoners because problems occur in penitentiaries, often arising from disputes between them, and it's difficult to control them all," Lopa told reporters after the launch of a three-day national meeting on correctional institutions.

While Lopa would not identify a specific prison to be used, the ministry's director general for penitentiaries, Adi Sujatno, said that Cirebon penitentiary had been tipped as a special- purpose penitentiary for prisoners convicted of drug-related crimes.

"We consider the Cirebon penitentiary fit for the purpose. There will be a rehabilitation program for drug-addicted prisoners until they are declared cured. This will also halt drug trafficking in prisons," he said.

Lopa admitted that commotions had easily broken out in prisons recently due to a lack of supervision from wardens.

"There has been a trend that whenever a fight breaks out between inmates, drug offenders in particular always take the opportunity to attack wardens.

"We have punished disobedient prisoners ... but it has not worked yet. In one of my impromptu visits to correctional institutions I found that the chief was not in his office. I later discovered that he was drinking in a night club," Lopa said.

The latest prominent incident involving drug offenders was the riot in Cipinang last month, which left one prisoner killed.

The unrest erupted as some 60 prison guards and officers from the police's Mobile Brigade were escorting 50 prisoners, most of whom had been sentenced for drug offenses, to buses for transportation to penitentiaries in Tangerang and Cirebon.

The head of the Tangerang womens prison has proposed to separate drug convicts from others due to their "bad" habits. The plan follows the escape of two drug convicts from that facility.

Earlier this month police and Tangerang penitentiary wardens aborted an attempted escape by five inmates, one of whom is a drug offender. The prisoners assembled a homemade bomb for detonation in the prison prior to their planned jailbreak.(bby)