Mukhlis Dinillah, Bandung – The West Java Ministry of Justice and Human Rights representative office has found signs of deviant sex being committed by inmates at a number of correctional institutions and prisons as a result of overcrowding.
West Java Justice Ministry representative head Liberti Sitinjak has revealed that prisons are over capacity because they currently house some 23,681 inmates but only have a capacity for 15,658 people.
“Correctional institutions and prisons are already over capacity. It’s like the situation is causing feet to touch feet, heads to meet heads and bodies to meet bodies. The result is the emergence of homosexuals (gays) and lesbians”, said Sitinjak at the Arcamanik Sports Facility in Bandung City on Monday July 8.
According to Sitinjak, these symptoms have emerged because the biological needs of inmates are not being channeled, particularly for married inmates.
“In any case these symptoms would have existed before. Because it is indeed like this, how can a person who’s married, gets put into a prison and automatically right, their biological needs can’t be channeled”, said Sitinjak.
He says that he is trying to find a solution to address the problem of prison overcrowding, particularly for inmates convicted for drug offences, which are the majority or around 60 percent of prisoners.
“So this is a future challenge, which ones (drug cases) should be put in prison, which ones must be rehabilitated. So it does not create the overcrowding I referred to earlier”, said Sitinjak.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Over Kapasitas Penjara di Jabar, Napi Jadi Gay dan Lesbian”.]
