Inmates escape prison in Medan

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Scores of adult inmates, who were being kept temporarily at a Children's Penitentiary in Medan, escaped at dawn on Friday, raising public concern over poor security and overcrowding in prisons. Three of them, however, were reportedly recaptured a few hours after the escape.

The 31 inmates, who are mostly serving sentences of between one and four years for drug offenses, escaped from the prison after helping one another to reach the roof of a large dining room. They then broke through the roof and scaled down the prison walls.

A senior government official, Bambang Winahyo, admitted that the escape happened due to the negligence of prison guards.

Five guards were on duty at dawn on Friday, but four of them had left their posts, he said. Instead of staying in their own posts, the four joined a friend guarding another post near the prison's entrance, for reasons unknown, said Bambang, the head of the correctional division at North Sumatra's justice and human rights office.

The absence of the guards enabled the inmates to escape the prison, moreover rain was pouring down in the prison area, making it difficult for the guards to hear anything, said Bambang.

Bambang explained that the 31 inmates, aged between 20 and 25 years old, were among 118 adult inmates being housed in a large dining room in the Children's Penitentiary. Besides this group, there was also another 308 adult inmates being housed in other halls and cells in the Children's Penitentiary.

The 426 inmates, from Labuhan Deli prison, were being temporarily housed at the Children's Penitentiary because the Labuhan Deli Prison was already overcrowded. Some 500 children are also detained in the same prison.

"The 31 adult inmates had apparently observed the situation in the prison closely as they have been there for two months," said Bambang at the Children's Penitentiary on Jl. Tanjung Gusta in Medan.

North Sumatra Provincial Police chief Insp. Gen. Iwan Pandjiwinata, who visited the prison on Friday morning, said that he had instructed his men to recapture the inmates. The order bore fruit a few hours later after three inmates were recaptured in Tembung and Deli Serdang area near Medan, according to detik.com newsportal.

Hamid Awaluddin, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, who made a sudden unannounced visit to the prison, promised that the case would be probed and guilty officials severely punished.

A similar incident occurred at the Batam Penitentiary in September last year when 52 convicts escaped by sawing through the bars of their cells. Some have been recaptured but many are still at large. Overcrowding and lax security have been blamed for the escape.