[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia plans to reduce child inmates' sentences

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Government planning to reduce child inmates' sentences 

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

The government is planning to give sentence remissions to juvenile offenders 
on important anniversaries and religious festivals, Justice and Human Rights 
Minister Hamid Awaluddin says.

Speaking during a visit to a children's wing of a jail in Makassar on Sunday, 
Hamid said if the additional remissions program was approved, youth offenders 
would have their sentences reduced at least three times a year -- on 
Independence Day, during major religious festivals and on National Children's Day, 
which falls on July 23. 

Hamid said the remissions, of a minimum 15 days and a maximum six months, 
would get children out of jails and back with their families faster, giving them 
more time to develop their potential as productive members of society. 

He said the move would show the government's "love and concern" for the 
nation's youth, who would only learn from older criminals if they spent too long in 
jails. It would also treat child offenders in the same way as adults, who 
also received sentence reductions on national holidays, he said. 

The minister said children would not be given sentence reductions unless they 
had behaved themselves inside -- the same criteria that was used for adult 
prisoners. 

The country currently has more than 3,000 prisoners between the ages of eight 
and 17 in detention. Many children have to share rooms with adult prisoners 
because only Jakarta has opened a special children's penitentiary. 

In South Sulawesi, a special prison for children is being constructed in 
Pare-Pare, about 150 kilometers to the north of Makassar. 

To protect children from abuse and psychological harm, they need to be 
detained in completely separate facilities from adult prisoners, with specialized 
jailers and social workers, Hamid said. 

"Ideally, juvenile prisoners should be accommodated in special penitentiaries 
for children, designed in many colors to depict a child's world and equipped 
with playgrounds and study rooms," he said. 

The country also needs special children's courts as well, Hamid said. 
However, a lack of money means this had not yet happened he said. 

Unicef South Sulawesi branch head Purwanta Iskandar hailed the government's 
plans for juvenile prisoners. 

"Children should not be jailed, but returned to their families or communities 
for rehabilitation. Sending children to jail will only negatively impact 
their development and behavior," he said. 

He hoped the amendments to the 1997 Children's Courts Law could be completed 
quickly so youth offenders did not always end up in prison. 

The age of responsibility should also be raised from eight years to 12 years, 
he said. 

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------