119,175 Inmates Get Remission on 75th Anniversary of Independence Day

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government has reduced the prison sentence for 119,175 inmates, including children, across Indonesia as part of the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the country's independence day.

Of the total, 1,438 inmates were immediately set free after they were granted remission. The remission for the other 117,737 inmates varied, ranging from one month to six months.

“The remission has been granted as a manifestation of the effort to appreciate inmates who have shown good conduct in their daily life. If they had not shown good conduct, they would not have gotten remission,” director general of correctional facilities at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, Reynhard Silitonga, said in a written statement released on Monday.

Remission is usually granted to inmates who have met all administrative and substantive requirements, including having served a jail term of at least six months, not being included in the F registry containing convicts' violation of discipline, and taking an active part in the development program at correctional facilities, detention houses, or child correctional facilities.

The remission will save the state expenditure of up to Rp176 billion on inmates' meals.

The government has so far spent an estimated Rp173.258 billion on the 117,737 inmates. The budget fund allocated for providing meals to the 1,438 inmates granted remission was about Rp3.003 billion, bringing to Rp176.262 billion the total budget fund that the government can save from the expenditure on inmates' meals.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H Laoly said at a teleconference that remissions are an important legal means to achieve the goals of the correctional system, namely to motivate prisoners to improve themselves so they become good human beings.

Remission is part of the effort to achieve the goals of the correctional system, he remarked.

Read also: Pakistan Congratulates Indonesia on 75th Independence Day

ANTARA