Prisoners need more humane treatment: Experts
Prisoners need more humane treatment: Experts
JAKARTA (JP): Last week's rioting in a Surabaya high-security
prison has provoked fresh calls for the government to improve the
treatment of inmates.
Legal expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, social worker Ade
Rostina Sitompul, former correctional institutional official
Baharuddin Lopa and academic Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto all urged a
more humane attitude to prisoners' welfare.
Hundreds of inmates and detainees at Medaeng prison ran amok
last Wednesday, setting fire to the prison occupied by 575
people. None escaped because the police surrounded the prison
soon after the fire started. Twenty six people were detained for
causing the trouble.
Press reports said that the prisoners were unhappy with the
way prison officials treated different groups of inmates. While
many prisoners sleep on mats, others were said to enjoy
privileges such as sleeping on mattresses and being allowed to
watch TV and use cellular phones.
Harkristuti from the University of Indonesia said many wardens
still held on to the old philosophy that prison is a place for
the state to retaliate people for committing crimes.
She pointed to the philosophy of the 1995 law on correctional
institutions that says prison is a place for the state to educate
inmates so they can become law-abiding citizens.
"The correctional philosophy should be changed so that their
approach toward prisoners is more humane," she said.
Harkristuti said that prison officials should remember
prisoners retained basic rights that should be respected, such as
access to adequate room, food, recreation facilities, reading
materials, and social interaction.
She said the Medaeng prison riot was understandable given that
the prison was overcrowded, which contributed to aggressiveness,
and that discrimination was commonplace.
"Under our legal system, segregation of inmates should be
based on the category of their crime, not on -- say --
considerations of wealth," she said.
Ade Rostina Sitompul said she believed that the humane
approach was the best way to prevent rioting in prisons as the
term correctional institution indicates.
Ade, who shared the 1995 Yap Thiam Hien Human Rights Award
with East Java tobacco farmers, said prisoners should be provided
with skills they could use to survive after being released.
At present, she said, prisoners did not have enough activities
to occupy their time.
"I often see prisoners just hanging around in groups doing
nothing," Ade said, adding that insufficient activities generated
an atmosphere that could trigger a riot.
She also said that she had seen some prisons had bad sanitary
facilities and food. "It is not a place for people to be
'tortured'," said Ade, who dedicates her life to helping
prisoners.
"It's a long-standing situation which has not been properly
addressed," Ade added.
Baharuddin Lopa called on prison officials to maintain a high
alert level because all prisoners had the drive to escape.
"Even though you give them martabak (Indian crepes) every
night, it will not influence their wish to flee. Prisoners may
look nice, but don't trust them 100 percent that they will not
escape," he added.
Lopa, who is the secretary-general of the National Commission
on Human Rights, said officials should refrain from treating
prisoners harshly or the inmates would be offended.
"We should remember that they are also human beings who
deserve to have their basic needs met," he said.
Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto, a professor of Sociology of Law at
the state Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, also
emphasized the need to respect prisoners' basic rights.
"In Indonesia, prisoners' human rights have not been
adequately respected" he said.
The professor cited a lack of funds as the main reason for the
bad conditions in prisons. (05)