Sukamiskin Prison Chief Explains How Corruption and General Inmates Contribute to Asta Cita Through Sukaboat
Sukamiskin Prison in Bandung, West Java, is known as a prison for corruption convicts, but it also houses inmates convicted of general criminal offences. They collaborate in work guidance programmes to build fast boats, or speedboats.
The boats made by Sukamiskin inmates are branded ‘Sukaboat’. In the process, corruption convicts handle the managerial side of boat production, while inmates convicted of general offences carry out the technical aspects.
“In making these boats, corruption convicts who have management basics, innovation, and expertise in boats and design ultimately merge with general inmates such as those convicted of drug cases and street crimes,” said Sukamiskin Prison Chief Nanank Syamsuddin when met by detikcom on Friday (21/8/2026) at Sukamiskin Prison.
Nanank Syamsuddin admitted that when he first became head of Sukamiskin Prison, he thought work activity programmes would be difficult to develop in a prison mostly occupied by corruption convicts. According to him, some of the inmates were previously officials or leaders in agencies or institutions and were accustomed to working at a managerial level.
“This is a prison for corruption convicts. Of course, the image in my mind was that no programme would run because these are intellectuals,” said Nanank.
According to Nanank, work activities in prisons have so far been synonymous with jobs that require direct involvement in the field. Meanwhile, some corruption inmates at Sukamiskin have backgrounds in desk jobs.
“On average, the work programmes are field work scale. So, what grew in my mind was that this would be difficult to run because they were previously officials or heads of agencies/institutions who were used to managerial work. This is a difficult thing because we think, oh, field work,” he said.
Nanank admitted he saw another approach as time went on. The prison looked at the capacity, knowledge, and experience possessed by corruption inmates. Their abilities, Nanank explained, could be directed to help develop rehabilitation programmes inside the prison.
“As time went on, it turned out we did find a different value. Their presence here must of course be adjusted to their capacity, given their background in corruption cases. If we force them to do field work, it certainly would not be optimal,” said Nanank.
Nanank explained that inmates with professional and managerial experience are encouraged to contribute their ideas and abilities. One of the results is Sukaboat.
“In the end, we encourage their genius thinking or experience to help develop rehabilitation programmes for inmates inside the prison,” he continued.
Nanank said the speedboat-making activity is now one of the flagship work programmes at Sukamiskin Prison. Sukamiskin is now the only prison that has a work guidance programme for making speedboats.
“This already has a positive practice, namely the development of making fast boats or speedboats. In Indonesia, as far as I know, it is only at Sukamiskin at the moment. There used to be one in Porong, but it did not continue. Here, the boat-making work programme has become our ‘selling point’ or flagship,” said Nanank.
Nanank said the products produced have also begun to receive a response from the market. “Alhamdulillah, market interest already exists. There are those who have bought our products, even more than 20 units,” he said.
Nanank said Sukamiskin Prison has a capacity of 560 residents. Based on data as of 19 August, the number of inmates occupying the prison was recorded at 429 people.
Of that number, 290 are inmates in corruption cases. The rest come from various general criminal cases, from drugs, theft, to other criminal offences.
For Nanank, the difference in backgrounds is not only a problem in determining the type of rehabilitation, but can also be utilised by dividing roles according to each person’s abilities, especially in supporting national food security. The development of Sukaboat is also directed to reach the fisheries sector.
“If we look back at the President’s Asta Cita, the food security sector is not only agriculture. But there is a blue economy that is the President’s target. So, the development of boat products here is also a support for achieving the blue economy, because there are fishing boat products that we will later distribute to blue economy regions,” said Nanank.
It was previously reported that Sukamiskin Prison is located in the middle of Bandung City, whose geographical location is far from the sea or deep waters. However, this prison has actually opened a work guidance activity for making fast boats or speedboats for inmates.
Two hangar-like locations are used by the prison as speedboat shipyards. The inmates are trained starting from the moulding process, sanding, welding, ironwork, to finishing the speedboat body. The concept, design, production management, and technical work are all done by inmates.