Emergency Call for Improvement of Prison Management
The fire at the overcrowded prison broke out at 1.50 a.m. At that time, the prison guards saw the hotspots in the Block C area, which consisted of 19 rooms occupied by 122 inmates.
By
kompas team
·6 minutes read
The bodies of the 41 inmates killed in a fire that raged a Tangerang prison are being identified by the police. The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical short circuit. Therefore, an evaluation of the prison building and security standards is urgently needed.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The death of 41 inmates in a fire that ravaged Block C2 of the Tangerang Penitentiary, Banten, in the early morning on Wednesday (8/9/2021), allegedly caused by an electrical short circuit, should be seen as an emergency warning for the improvement in the management of the country’s prisons. The problem of overcrowding and the poor security and safety standards need to be urgently addressed.
The fire at the overcrowded prison broke out at 1.50 a.m. At that time, the prison guards saw the hotspots in the Block C area, which consisted of 19 rooms occupied by 122 inmates. Of the total, 119 inmates were being detained on drug-related offences, two related to terrorism and one on a murder case. Two of the inmates were foreign nationals, one each from South Africa and Portugal.
Officers who saw the blaze in Block C then contacted the head of security and the fire department. Firefighters tried to extinguish the fire with a light extinguisher. However, the fire continued to grow. The fire made it difficult for officers to open rooms in Block C. A total of 12 fire engines arrived a dozen minutes later. Efforts to extinguish the fire lasted until 3.30 a.m.
Forty inmates detained on drug-related offences and another one involved in a terrorism case were killed in the fire. In addition, nine inmates with minor injuries were treated at the prison clinic, eight inmates were referred to the Tangerang General Hospital and 64 others were temporarily placed in the Tangerang prison’s mosque.
This investigation is being conducted by the Central Police Forensic Laboratory Team.
The identity of the deceased is being identified by the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Team of the National Police. In addition to identifying the victims, the head of the Public Information Bureau of the Public Relations Division of the National Police, Brigadier General (Pol) Rusdi Hartono, also said that the cause of the fire was still being investigated. This investigation is being conducted by the Central Police Forensic Laboratory Team.
“According to data and several witnesses, it was informed that there was an electrical short circuit. It\'s just an initial prediction," said Rusdi.
Separately, the head of the National Police\'s Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim), Commissioner General Agus Andranto, said the National Police had coordinated with the Law and Human Rights
Ministry to uncover the cause of the fire. Bareskrim would assist the Jakarta Police with the investigation process and forensic laboratory check.
Safety standards
Based on data from the Institute of the Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), the Indonesia Judicial Research Society (IJRS) and the Institute for Research and Advocacy for Judicial Independence (LeIP), in the last three years, there have been fires in 13 prisons. Of that number, 10 fires occurred in overcrowded prisons. Three of the fires were caused by an electrical short circuit.
Justice and Human Rights Ministerial Decree No. M.01.PL.01.01 of 2003 on the standard of the buildings of prisons has regulated the details of prison building standards, including a number of scenarios to prevent a fire. For example, it is states that each prison block should be equipped with a fire extinguishing system, including danger signs, light and heavy fire extinguishers, which should be placed inside and outside the building. There should also a fire evacuation route in each prison.
It is also suspected that the electrical installation had not been updated for a long time, so it was prone to problems.
The Center for Detention Studies researcher, Gatot Goei, said the fire in the Tangerang prison should be used as an opportunity for the Law and Human Rights Ministry to audit prison building standards in Indonesia comprehensively. The Tangerang prison, for example, was built in 1977 and has never been significantly renovated since then. The majority of buildings consists of combustible materials, including wood. It is also suspected that the electrical installation had not been updated for a long time, so it was prone to problems.
The same problem also occurs in the majority of prisons in Indonesia. According to Gatot, almost 70 percent of the total 528 prisons in the country were buildings built during the Dutch colonial era until the 1980s.
"Both old and new buildings generally still use flammable materials — not according to prison building standards," said Gatot.
The condition of the buildings that are prone to fire is exacerbated by the overcrowding problem in almost all prisons. Based on data from the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s Corrections Directorate General, as of September, the Tangerang prison housed 2,072 inmates, far more than its 600-inmate capacity. This means the prison was running at 245 percent capacity.
According to Gatot, this made the security system less than optimal. The limited number of prison guards made it difficult to control the belongings of the inmates. He said that flammable items, such as stoves, matches and electronic devices, were often smuggled into prisons.
Thorough investigation
Raynov Pamintori Tumorang, a LeIP researcher, said the ICJR, IJRS and LeIP had asked the government to thoroughly investigate and evaluate the condition of the building and safety procedure, including protocols for emergency preparedness in a prison. According to him, it is also necessary to determine the mechanism of accountability. The government must also solve the problem of prison overcrowding by involving cross-sectoral law enforcement.
After reviewing the Tangerang prison, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H Laoly said the fire was suspected to have occurred “because the prison was old”. There had been no recent update on electrical installations.
According to him, at the time of the fire, the prison’s rooms were locked in line with the existing protocols. Many bodies were found in the locker rooms.
"I have asked the Corrections Directorate General to check prisons that have been around for decades so that similar incidents will not happen again," he said.
Yasonna also asked the Corrections Directorate General to disburse emergency funds to repair prisons that are decades old, as well as cooperate with all related parties to find the cause of the fire and accept various suggestions related to prevention strategies. (NIA/NAD/EDN/ERK/DAN/MEL/VAN/NIK)
(This article was translated byHendarsyah Tarmizi).