Breaking Through Security Doors... More Than Half Still on the Run
Frequent Mass Prison Breaks Due to Overcrowding in Indonesian Prisons
More than 50 inmates escaped from a prison in Indonesia.
On the 14th (local time), the British Independent and others reported that on the 11th, 52 inmates escaped from the Southeast Aceh Kutakane Prison in Aceh Special Autonomous Province on Sumatra Island, Indonesia.
While meals were being served in the prison cafeteria, they broke down three locked security doors, exited the building, jumped over the walls, and ran onto the road connected to the prison.
Prison inmates who escaped from a prison in Aceh, Indonesia, are climbing over the wall. [Image source=Captured from SNS]
Videos showing the escaped inmates running through the streets spread on social networking services (SNS). Some inmates ran on the prison roof to evade pursuit. Most of the escapees were reportedly drug offenders.
In response, not only prison guards and police but also nearby citizens chased the escapees. As of the 13th, 24 escapees had been captured, but the remaining 28 were still on the run.
Donny Sumarsono, chief of the Southeast Aceh Police Station, urged through local media, "If you escape, you will receive a heavier sentence, so surrender."
Such mass prison breaks often occur in Indonesian prisons, which suffer from poor security and overcrowding.
Overcrowding is a chronic problem in Indonesia. According to the local Ministry of Justice, the capacity of Indonesian prisons and detention centers is about 145,000, but the inmate population is double that, reaching approximately 274,000.
Police officers are preparing to enter in front of Sialang Bungkuk Male Prison in Pekanbaru, Riau Province, Indonesia, where a mass prison break occurred in 2017. Photo by Yonhap News
The Kutakane Prison also had a capacity of 100 inmates, but at the time of the escape, it was housing as many as 368 inmates, more than three times its capacity.
In response, the Indonesian government announced, "To alleviate the prison overcrowding problem, we will build additional prisons," and "Some inmates from the prison where the incident occurred will be transferred to other regional prisons."
Previously, in 2019, at a prison on Sumatra Island, Indonesia, at least 100 inmates escaped amid a riot and a fire in the detention facility. At that time, authorities captured 115 escapees, but dozens were still on the run.
In 2018, 113 inmates escaped from Lambaro Prison in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh Province, during Islamic prayer time, and 90 of them were not caught.
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