Is releasing prisoners a good move?

 

Release of Prisoners during Covid-19 Pandemic

In the last 2019, the whole world is surprised by the founding of a new disease which identified came from a virus called the corona, this virus is in the same family with SARS-CoV-2. Afterward, this virus called Corona Disease 2019 (Covid-19).  “Coronavirus: a type of common virus that infects humans, typically leading to an upper respiratory infection” (Stöppler, 2020). The main concern of this virus is the speed of the spreads. According to WHO (World Health Organization), the virus mainly spreads through saliva and the discharge from the nose. This virus first appeared in Wuhan city, China. According to the South China Morning Post, the first case was on 17 November 2019, and within 7 months there are more than 4 million new cases. Later on, the virus starts to spread into several countries such as; Spain, The United States, Russia, and eventually spread into many countries, including Indonesia as well. WHO (World Health Organization) made a conference on 12 March 2020 regarding the coronavirus, and the result is an announcement that coronavirus is not an Epidemic but a Pandemic with more than 20.000 confirmed cases and almost 1000 deaths in the European area. By now, there have been about 4.08 M confirmed worldwide cases with 1.94M recovered and 332K deaths. In Indonesia itself, there have been 20K confirmed cases with 4.8K recovered and 1.278K deaths.

               Coronavirus evokes plenty of problems in various aspects; for instance, in economics, the nation's stability, mental health, education, and many other aspects. Various methods are used to reduce the number of new coronavirus cases, lockdown for instance.   China, Italy, Spain, France, and many other countries are applying the lockdown method. Through this method the numbers of new coronavirus cases might be decreased. Due to the high rate of spread coronavirus, the government forced to assemble several policies regarding coronavirus. One of the government's policies is the release of more than 30.000 prisoners in order to decrease and slowing down the spreads of coronavirus. Ministry of Law and Human Rights provides assimilation and integration in the form of conditional release rights to more than 30,000 prisoners in the various region through the Minister of Law and Human Rights Ministerial Regulation Number 10, 2020. Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna H. Laoly stated that the regulation regarding the release of prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) carried out by his company at this time was a recommendation from the United Nations (UN). The right of integration is the right of prisoners; it is regulated in Undang-Undang Pemasyarakatan which stated that prisoners have the right to obtain training programs to integrate prisoners and children into community life after fulfilling specified requirements. The right of integration including granting parole, pre-term, and conditional leave. This regulation appears because of the fears of overcapacity in prisons. According to the regulation, the released prisoner is a child prisoner and common prisoner, corrupt prisoners, narcotics prisoners, and terrorism prisoners are not included. However, releasing 30.000 prisoners might be able to cause greater losses.

            Firstly, it might increase the numbers of criminality. After previously being assimilated and parole related to the Covid-19 outbreak, 27 ex-prisoners returned to commit crimes after being released. The numbers above are only the case that was recorded and caught by the police. Nobody knows about the actual number of criminality. However, The National Police announced an increase in crime rate records from around March 2020 in Indonesia. During this pandemic, people found it difficult to find work to meet their daily needs, including ex-prisoners as well. Because of the difficulty to meet daily needs, there will appear the possibility of people committing criminal acts.

            Furthermore, it also raises the sense of fear in the neighborhood. A prisoner is a person who has committed a crime and gets the punishment in jail. The release of prisoners would raise public safety concerns. People might be feeling insecure in an environment with ex-convicts; for fear that ex-convicts repeat their crimes. Moreover, in this pandemic fulfilling daily needs becomes more difficult, so it might increase the possibility of people committing a criminal act.

            Furthermore, it is because there is a possibility of the ex-prisoners getting infected outside the jail. The spread of the coronavirus is still very difficult to predict. Sometimes there is an infected person without symptoms, so that makes it more unpredictable. If the ex-prisoners are ignoring health protocols the possibility of getting infected is increased.

                        Coronavirus has forced the government to make several policies in order to deal with the coronavirus outbreak; one of the policies is about releasing about 30.000 prisoners. This policy might cause greater losses because it increases the numbers of criminality, it also raises the sense of fear in the neighborhood, and moreover, it opens the possibility of the ex-prisoners getting infected outside the jail. However, if releasing prisoners is inevitable it is better to select prisoners who will be released through risk assessment in order to predict the possibility of the prisoner repeating the crime again.

Bibliography

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