The prison staff check everything visitors bring into the prisons.
Visitors can bring magazines, books, food, non-alcoholic drinks and toiletries.
Razors and bottles are not allowed.
Detainees can receive mails and parcels all subject to inspection by the prison authorities.
There is no bail in Indonesia. It is possible to ask the court to adjust the conditions of detention while on trial. This does not apply to cases subject to heavy penalties such as drug trafficking.
No remission of sentence for good behavior is possible for prisoners serving sentences of less than 6 months, for repeat offenders (three strikes law) or for prisoners who do not respect the rules of the prison.
Prisoners convicted for drug or corruption offenses, arrested before 2012 must serve at least one third of their sentence before being eligible for remission for good behavior.
In other cases, prisoners serving 6 to 12 months receive one month’s remission.
For prisoners who have served more than 12 months, the remissions are as follows:
One year = 2 months discount
Two years = 3 months discount
Three years = 4 months discount
Four years = 5 months discount
Remission of sentences is generally announced on 17 August each year, the anniversary of the independence of Indonesia.
Since 2012, a government procedure called PP 99 indicates that, in order to benefit from a remission of sentence, prisoners convicted for drug-related offenses or corruption must be recognized as “collaborators” of justice.
For this they must be supported either by the prosecutor’s office or by the National Narcotics Agency (Badan Nasional Narkotika).
Inmates from the Bulu Women’s Prison (Semarang) asked, on 21 April 2017, the revocation or revision of the government procedure PP 99, which makes the procedure for requesting remission of sentence very complicated.
The Indonesian State is a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Torture. The Additional Protocol to the Convention against Torture has not been signed or ratified. No national preventive mechanism is in place.
Discussions on this issue took place on 9 March 2016 with members of the government, law enforcement agencies and civil society actors.
The Indonesian Red Cross should be able to inspect the country’s prisons every year. The organisation has been prevented from doing so for two years.
