TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly has asked his staffers to tighten the supervision of prisoners who were released early through a recent assimilation and integration program amid the coronavirus pandemic. Yasonna asked all heads of the ministry’s regional offices and the correctional units throughout Indonesia to coordinate with the police on the monitoring.

“I hope all regional office heads and correctional unit heads coordinate with the regional police chiefs in their respective areas,” said Yasonna as quoted from the ministry’s press release on Monday, April 20.

Yasonna ordered immediate arrests of all early-released inmates who repeated their crimes.

The PDIP politician also asked his staffers to cooperate with the regional leadership forum to complete the data of the prisoners, which he deemed vital as a basis of the watch.

“Directly check with their families. I instruct all regional office leaders to launch 24-hour monitoring for this program,” Yasonna underlined.

To date, the Law and Human Rights Ministry has granted more than 38,000 prisoners and children early releases through assimilation and integration programs in an effort to curb the coronavirus spread in overcrowded prisons. Out of the figure, 13 were taken back to the prison as they committed a crime again.

Yasonna Laoly confirmed that the figure was relatively small compared to the number of recidivism cases before the COVID-19 outbreak. However, hoaxes related to the matter has stirred public unrest. Therefore, he demanded his staffers ramp up the supervision.

M ROSSENO AJI