Law Ministry Asks for Additional Rp2.2tn Budget to Revamp Prisons
7 June 2016 14:04 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-The Ministry of Law and Human Rights asking for an additional budget of Rp2.2 trillion to the House of Representatives' (DPR) Law Commission. The request was made during the work meeting of the 2016 State Budget Amendment on Tuesday, June 7.
The ministry's secretary general Bambang Rantam Sariwanto said the additional budget will be spent on physical development, prevention and emergency response, prison renovation and a new building for drug-convict cells.
Bambang said the money will also be used to build around six penitentiaries with leading potentials that can absorb worker inmates. Building additional prisons is also the ministry's solution for over-capacity problems.
Tifatul Sembiring, member of the Regional Legislative Council's (DPD) Law Commission from the PKS Party, highlighted the ministry's rate of budget absorption. As of June 2016, he said, the ministry has only spent 31.2 percent of its allotted budget. Tifatul said the government should pay more attention to budget uptake.
He also said that the Tanjung Gusta prison in Medan lacks capacity, with cells that can only hold 1,100 whereas the total number of inmates reaches 3,000.
Tifatul also said that the number of prison guards in not proportional to the number of inmates. In Tanjung Gusta the guard-to-inmate ratio is 1:100. "If a riot happens, the guards would be finished. I agree that the number of guards is increased," he said.
DANANG FIRMANTO
