Indonesia Struggles to Revamp `Hell-Hole` Bali Prison

Home
About Us
Comment Policy
Privacy Policy
Search in site...
HOME
Jakarta
NEWS
BUSINESS
Health
INTERNATIONAL
Environment
Economy
OPINION
SPORTS
Corporate News
FEATURES
Automotive
COUNT ME IN
Tech
BLOGS
The Tipping
Point:
What’s the
Point of Tipping, Anyway?
Football
Odd
News
Eyewitness
Events Calendar
Indonesia Struggles to Revamp ‘Hell-Hole’ Bali
Prison
By webadmin on 11:43 am December 6, 2012.
Category Archive
Angela Dewan
The sound of male inmates singing a hymn of repentance as others play tennis in a lush garden
would have you believe Indonesia’s most infamous prison has been radically transformed.
One of the struggles of early adulthood is
tackling that awkward decision of how…
But those who spend time in Kerobokan prison on the holiday island of Bali say the jail is still a
cesspool of bribery, drugs and clandestine sex, despite a management overhaul aimed at cleaning
up its image.
What a New Leadership Model ‘Turun Tangan’ Might
Look
Articles
Like
Latest
Comments
“You can still get anything you want if you have the money,” an Australian prisoner told AFP outside
the prison church. “Nothing’s really changed.”
New management was installed in February after the prison warden and Bali police commander were
sacked following days of jail riots, triggered by a gang-war stabbing, further tarnishing the prison’s
already gritty reputation.
Around 1,000 police were deployed, firing water canon and rubber bullets to contain the grossly
overcrowded facility after the prison guards fled unable to control the mayhem.
Order has been restored, but last month two mysterious deaths were reported in the prison and
volunteers who work with the inmates say drug use and bribery are still rampant.
“Inmates tell us of drug deals being done at church and on the tennis court, and guards are still
taking money to allow sex in toilet cubicles,” Indonesian Prisoners Association chair Ida Ayu Made
Gayatri said.
“We know that people are still throwing drugs over the prison walls and some are even coming
through the front gate with staff.”
I read somewhere that political campaigns are
like poems —short and full of flowery…
Indonesian Lifters Grab Golds at Islamic
Games
No End
Play
at Mannequin Plastic
byto
Ami
Afriatni
Like many prisons in Indonesia, Kerobokan struggles with space — it is three times over capacity,
with 1,015 inmates, including 68 foreigners and nine children.
It has been home to Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby since 2004 and the Bali Nine — a
group of Australians found at the island’s airport with heroin strapped to their bodies.
While the women sleep on mattresses brought in by an NGO in neat but cramped rooms that
resemble university dorms, the men are packed tighter into larger cells, many sleeping up to 70 on a
concrete floor with little room to stretch.
The new prison chief, I Gusti Ngurah Wiratna, is determined to strip Kerobokan of its reputation,
which hit rock bottom in 2009 with the publication of “Hotel Kerobokan” by Australian author Kathryn
Bonella.
She described the prison as a “hell-hole” where cash-rich inmates — thanks mostly to money
brought in by visitors — enjoy a life of relative luxury beside their poor peers living in squalor.
Jakarta Stocks Erase Gains Since Fed
The book portrayed the prison as Bali’s “drug hub,” describing paid-for sex parties, murders and
suicide.
Decision on Rate Concern
Wiratna’s first step in cleaning up the colossal mess at Kerobokan is the “zero rupiah” program to
ensure prisoners cannot pay for special treatment and to curb the bribe culture that feeds hungry
prison guards.
Jasa Marga to Sell Rp 2.1t Bonds
by Bloomberg
by Jakarta Globe
“This kind of violence happens because rival groups here form around money and they fight over
payments,” Wiratna said, explaining that the bulk of the gang members have been moved to another
facility.
“Bribes used to happen in the open. Visitors used to have to pay to come in and prisoners would pay
guards to do activities that should be free. That’s all stopped now.”
But a foreign woman recently imprisoned, struggling to adjust to life inside, said she was unable to go
to church until she paid the guards for a pass.
“I don’t have anything to do here. I’m trying to get a punching bag brought in just so I can exercise.
I’m still waiting to be able to go to church,” she said, tears welling in her eyes.
Are you a dog or cat person? It’s a very
important question to consider…
“I don’t know what to do here or how the system works.”
Tears of Happiness
While money can still buy just about anything inside, prisoners in Block W, the women’s block,
complain the usual cash flow has slowed since Wiratna took over.
“Things in Block W are okay, but the economy’s not great,” a 24-year-old Indonesian woman
convicted for drug possession told AFP.
by AFP/Adek Berry
Dyandra Media to Spend Rp 550b for 11
New Hotels
by Agustinus Tetiro
The woman who washes fellow inmates’ and guards’ clothes in Block W for a Rp 10,000 to Rp
20,000 ($1-$2) said people had been short of cash recently.
Block W is indeed an economy — a dozen women in the kitchen were frying glutinous sesame balls
while others sewed handbags they hoped to sell on the outside somehow — but it is one in which the
guards retain the power and wealth.
“The women cooking in the kitchen are paid by the guards, who sell the food back to the prisoners
for a profit,” another foreign woman convicted for drug possession said.
The prisoner holds up a plastic bag with a slice of bread, a banana and two pieces of papaya.
“That’s all foreigners get to eat each day. The kitchen is supposed to be ours, but the guards use it to
make money. Any other food we want, we have to buy,” she said.
“In the end, no one starves, but you spend a lot of your time working out where to get money just to
feed yourself.”
Disgraced Johnson No Longer Running
from Doping Past
by Steve Keating
Agence France-Presse
The Thinker: Hard Path to Glory
Share this:
Facebook
Twitter
Google +1
Email
Print
by Oei Eng Goan
Related Articles:
Pope Defends
Immigrant Rights,
Denounces 'Slave
Labor'
Philippe Cousteau’s
Journey to Sumatra
Alleged Meth Dealer
Sebadoh Returns
Arrested in East Aceh More Melodic and
Police Shooting
Refined
Greenpeace Report
Calls for Renewed
Vigor in Asean's
Renewable Energy
Drive
From a ‘Girl Friday’ in London to Asia’s
Top Interior Designer
by Sylviana Hamdani
0 comments
0
Most Popular
Leave a message...
Newest
Indonesia Has Bigger Problems Than
Bikinis
Share
Community
Tangerang Church Site Shuttered By
Protesters
Miss World Organizers Outraged As Govt
Submits to Hard-Liners
No one has commented yet.
Nigerian Wins Muslim Beauty Pageant
Rival to Miss World
Muslim Beauty Pageant in Jakarta
Challenges Miss World
ALSO ON THE JAKARTA GLOBE (BETA)
WHAT'S THIS?
Indonesian Minister ‘Shocked’ at
Harrison Ford Climate Interview
Historic Railway Tunnel
1 comment • 14 days ago
139 comments • 15 days ago
Roland — How can a declared cultural
heritage site AFTER "renovations"
suddenly has its length reduced by …
Max — Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan
seems like a coward, instead of bickering
like a child to the media he …
Indonesia Has Bigger Problems Than
Bikinis
Fauzi the Right Person for Berlin
Posting: Habibie
36 comments • 5 days ago
33 comments • 4 days ago
zerodiversity — Nice article, I wish all
zerodiversity — Foke should not be
Indonesians can read this article of yours.
Most sensible Indonesians …
allowed to serve in any kind of position
representing Indonesia.
Bikini Tensions Mar Islamic Games in
Indonesia
Honda’s Mobilio Set to Enter the Indonesia
Market
House Approves 22 New Ambassadors
Embassies in Indonesia Warn of Miss
World Attack Threat
Infamously Indecipherable: The Bizarre
Celebrity of Vicky Prasetyo
PR Newswire
News Provided by PR Newswire
Subscribe
Add Disqus to your site
Video: HBO LATINO®
PRESENTA UNA GAMA
COMPLETA DE
PROGRAMACIÓN
ORIGINAL DE ALTA
CALIDAD PARA EL
OTOÑO 2013 -­ Video
Receive all updates via
Facebook. Just Click the Like
Button Below
The Jakarta Globe
Like
216,304 people like The Jakarta Globe.
Facebook social plugin
HOME
ABOUT US
COMMENT POLICY
PRIVACY POLICY
RSS
↑ THE JAKARTA GLOBE