Author: Zahid Arkaan
Introduction
Age of mass incarceration is upon us. The amount of people under legal supervision is more than ever. What does this mean to the global economy, especially Indonesia? The prison system nowadays favors the capitalistic market. We can observe the impact of the current general correction system through the lenses of multiple aspects of the economy. Is the purpose of the correction system still upheld today?
Figure 1. Incarceration Rate by Country 2022 (World Population Review, 2022)
The main objective of prison is to rehabilitate the criminals of the nation to get back on the street and find a new and better purpose. This means that the labor force depends heavily on the correction system. However, several judgements on the current prison system contradict the purposes. Some companies are now capitalizing on the amount of people in jail. There is less incentive to rehabilitate the criminal and get them out of prison. Other than that, the reason that prison exists is to reduce crime by deterring future criminals and locking the current ones. Then again, the evidence lower crime statistics such as murder, assault, and other crime rates does not follow the high incarceration rate (World Population Review, 2022). The repercussions of incarceration also affects several social concerns. Prison Policy Initiatives (2022) argues that prison dehumanizes people. In addition, most people who are behind bars are marginalized communities and prison is filled with people who are imprisoned because of using drugs. The rising number of prisoners will lead to more problems such as overcrowding. This problem will discuss its impact on the labor force along with its cost to the nation.
Indonesian Prison Landscape
Indonesia is one of the countries that has the most people in prison. In fact, among the top 10 countries with the most people in prison, Indonesia ranked eighth. However, it should be acknowledged that Indonesia is also one of the most populated countries in the world. In terms of population rate, Indonesia will have 100 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population in 2022 (World Prison Brief, 2022). In this prison population, around 95% are men. The total population in 2021 is 151,303 people. While this is not a small number, the rate of imprisonment is still rising. Per 2022, the number reached around 276,288. The rate is still lower than neighboring countries such as Malaysia (212 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population in 2022). The problem is that the Indonesian prisons do not have the capacity to keep that many people inside the walls. Overcrowding is a current problem in Indonesian prisons where the occupancy level reached 209.1% in 2022. This means that there are two people inside a cell that is designed for one. Why does this happen? This can be explained by the type of crimes that inhabit the prison. In August 2021, around 145,413 or 96% of the total inmate population was imprisoned because of drug related crimes (Rizaty, 2022). In fact, the second most criminals inside of the prison are the people who were imprisoned because of using drugs.
Figure 2. Inmates by Type of Crime in Indonesia 2022 (Dihni, 2021)
The Cost of Prison
The truth is, prison is expensive. Keeping non-working people under the care of the government is very costly. Consequently, lowering cost also affects the inmates living standards. The cost contribution includes prison security itself, food, recreational and education facilities, maintenance to infrastructure, utility, healthcare, and rehabilitation programs (Henrichson & Delaney, 2012). All of the cost is integral to the prison where we cannot sacrifice any of them. If we try to lessen the cost then the implications would be fewer care to the prisoners, safety and living standards. The biggest part of the cost goes to employing the corrections officers. If we try to look at US spending on correctional institutions, around $1.9 billion is spent on the retiree fund of the correctional officers (Henrichson & Delaney, 2012). Other expenses include employee benefits, pensions, health care. This put a high emphasis on the amount security put to supervise the inmates. Meanwhile, the average cost of inmates in New York is around $69,355. To lower costs, sometimes overcrowding might help. Overcrowding means that the states can afford to split the cost of one inmate into two. States that overcrowd their prisons have average cost lower than those states that are able to reduce their prisoners population but unable to reduce the operating cost. In 2019, the Indonesian government allocated Rp1.79 trillion for the food budget of the prisoners. This put around Rp20 thousand allocation for food for every inmate every day. This data has not included the operating capacity for the inmates. Other than that, we can see the low amount of cost has been given to food for the inmates. Considering that overcrowding lessens the cost, the government has an incentive to not reduce the overcrowding or even increase the capacity for prisoners. However, overcrowding has its own social cost which we will discuss later.
Directly on the topic of the inmates, mass incarceration has its own impact on the labor force as the majority of the prisoners are within it. The labor force inside the prison are not specifically working as employed. Therefore, there is a dent in the productivity of the nation whenever there is a high rate of imprisonment. However, correctional institutions tried to utilize the time that the inmates have inside the prison by making rehabilitation programs, training programs, education, and any other programs that would benefit them when they are outside of the walls. These programs prove to be useful for people that have low education or low paying jobs where it expects to increase the inmates employability soon after release. Prisoners that completed the GED test in prison enjoy the benefit soon after release where the short term quarterly earnings are higher (Darolia et al., 2021). Another solution that they did is to force labor upon the prisoners. This solution invites controversies where they are compared to the roots of slavery. In fact, current prisons marginalize sub-stratas of the demographics where it favors privileged groups (Petach & Pena, 2021). Continuing mass incarceration, the repercussions will create higher gaps in the social classes where it will limit social mobility. The rich will get richer while the poor get poorer. According to World Population Review, mass incarceration in the United States is an attempt to create gaps where it favors privileged groups while discriminating the minority groups to preserve the material and status benefit that they currently possess (World Population Review, 2022).
Prison forced labor, or penal labor, are not protected in the United States Constitutions. Penal labor can be traced to its roots in slavery. The fact is that prisoners have experienced penal labor for centuries, be it dredging waterways in 18th century England, making weapons in Soviet gulags, or forced into mining and manufacturing schemes that still operate today (Reuters, 2019). Nowadays, these practices are still forced upon the prisoners. Most prisoners are forced to work with general prison maintenance that is crucial to keep the facilities running. Around 76% of prison workers say that they are required to work or face additional punishment (ACLU, 2022). These punishments range from solitary confinement, denying opportunities to reduce their sentences, and loss of family visitation. The problem is that this forced labor does not yield as much money. Incarcerated workers usually earn pennies or even no pay at all. On average, prisoners earn between 13 cents and 52 cents per hour in the United States.
Figure 3. Prison Labor Report Survey 2022 (ACLU, 2022)
Current global markets are built upon the penal labor system. As long as there is cheap labor, then there will be a high demand. The only stopping force of the use of this labor are morals, which some companies do not care about. In 2016, 560,000 prisoners were forced to work for the benefit of private companies or organizations (Reuters, 2019). China runs a network of prison facilities to produce goods for export. The products that these prisoners manufacture are not for a small grade business. Major brands such as IBM and Victoria’s Secret use these laborers to manufacture their goods. These would not be such a big deal if they were paid good and they can get job opportunities from these companies. However, the fact is that the kind of labor that they do is not specialized skilled labor. It is a simple job where it does not require any precedent intensive training. Therefore, it is not valid to use the argument that these labor would benefit them directly to find jobs as soon as they are released (Bofa, 2021). These kinds of labor are only profiting the private companies, not as rehabilitation programs for the inmates. The degree of profit that they make is so high that in a year the prison workers are able to produce $11 billion worth of goods and services. Looking at this fact we could somehow compare it to modern slavery. Antenna International defines modern slavery as “situations where a person has taken away another person’s freedom, the freedom to control their body, to choose to refuse certain work or to stop working, so that they can be exploited.”.
Challenges on the Current Indonesian Prison
After examining the penal labor system globally, we could zoom in our scope and look at Indonesia’s own prison system and its flaws. After discussing the impact of prison on the monetary cost as well as the labor force, we need to put our efforts to repair any broken system of incarceration. As mentioned, Indonesia’s biggest problem with prison is overcrowding. Currently, there are two people fit inside a cell designed for one person. There are only 127 prisons that are not categorized as overcrowded. If we need to reduce overcrowding by increasing the capacity, then we need to create around 17 units of prisons to keep up with the yearly increase of prisoners (Resia, 2021). However, it is expensive to increase capacity rather than reduce the number of prisoners. If we take this path as a solution, then the national budget would be inflated because prisons (Rumah Tahanan Negara/Rutan) are classified as national assets (Barang Milik Negara/BMN).
Several problems with overcrowding concern the safety of the prisoners itself. Without a doubt, letting two people live in a cell fit for one for years definitely has an impact on their own mental health. It is very detrimental to the fact that they have little to no privacy. Another problem is with the health complications that it would cause. One example of overcrowding problems is with the wildfire accident that happened on Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Tangerang. This incident caused the death of 49 inmates. After several investigations, it was found that the cause of casualties can be traced to overcrowding. It is harder for the warden to control the crowd. It was paired with the fact that the quality of the facility was considered poor (Resia, 2021). This could be blamed on the high cost that went into putting the variable cost of the prisoners rather than the operational/capital expenses for the facility. In other words, the substandard quality could be blamed on the rising rate of prisoners.
Overcrowding also had an adverse effect on the main purpose of correctional facilities: rehabilitation. Overcapacity means that the prison is not able to give full attention and complete rights for the prisoners. Example cases that could be brought up are about Freddy Budiman (Matanasi, 2016). He was sentenced to death because of a drug trafficking ring. Instead of getting rehabilitated, Freddy was still conducting his drug empire behind the bars. He was also found to have a special cell that he can use to satisfy his romantical urges with his partner. Another case is about the cell of Artalyta Suryani, where she was sentenced because of a gratification case. Her cell was considered luxurious and was more like a hotel room rather than a prison cell. This would not give her the point of rehabilitation or even a punishment. She would not be deterred from committing another crime because even if she was stuck behind bars, she would still live like a millionaire. Both cases exemplify another point of Indonesian prison which is corruption. While overcrowding reduces the prison human rights, corruption strips that even more. There are multiple cases of wardens who conduct illegal fees which is very detrimental to the inmates considering the low income that they receive. This caused several uproars and even a prison riot where multiple prisoners escaped. In conclusion, overcrowding can cause poor health conditions for the inmates, unprofessional wardens, bulging costs, and even the failure to achieve rehabilitation. A solution to this was proposed to the government: Privatizing prisons.
The Private Prison Industry
Private prisons are a thriving business nowadays. Large conglomerates such as CoreCivic, GEO Group, LaSalle Corrections, and Management and Training Corporation own private prisons lines of business. Other than private prisons, they also provide facilities such as food or programs concerning prisons. However, the most interesting lines of business that they chose are private prisons. How do they make money out of prisons? With private prisons, they are contracted by the government to operate prisons and accept inmates. This helps the government as they could reduce the cost just by paying these private companies per diem or per inmate they imprison (Bryant, 2022). The government only focuses on capturing, classifying, and convicting the criminals. Generally, private prisons make money when there are huge amounts of criminals. The government could enter a contract with the company based on the size of prisons, number of inmates, or even the number of beds. The history of prisons can be traced back to the early 1980s. At the time, private prisons was made trending by Thomas Beasley, Doctor R. Crants, and T. Don Hutto (Criminal Justice Programs, 2022). The main reason that this happened was when Ronald Reagan waged war on drugs in the United States. When he instituted the policies, the criminal rates spiked. This caused a higher number of inmates. The prison was overcrowded at the time. Whenever the demand was high, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) decided to run private prisons. They claimed that they could operate large sized prisons with lower cost than the public prisons. Other than that, private prisons utilize their inmates to create goods that companies can sell. This create controversy as it was compared to slavery and possibly hinder rehabilitation.
Pros and Cons of Private Prisons
Private prisons exist because they solve problems. This is because they reduce overcrowding and help the government to reduce costs while still meeting the criminal quotas. Private prisons also tend to be safer than public prisons (Britannica, 2022). Due to the private company agendas, private prisons usually have better facilities than its counterparts. They are also competing with the market. It means that they need to innovate to control the market. They are considered monopsony, meaning that the only consumer is one: the government. This means that they need to be as clean as possible. It includes how they treat their prisoners. The implications of this is that private prisoners are less corrupt than the public ones. If there are illegal fees conducted by the warden, it could reflect badly on the company and discourage the government from conducting business with them in the future. However, as good as it sounds, private prisons are not entirely a perfect solution.
On the other side of the spectrum, there is a lot of opposition to private prisons. To put it shortly, companies exist to create profit. How do companies make profit? There are only two ways to do that. Firstly, they need to increase their revenues. The only way for private prisons to increase revenues is by increasing the amount of prisoners. This is the basis of the argument that private prisons encourage the age of mass incarceration. Private prisons increase the incarceration rate by a huge margin, usually by a flexible type of crime (Galinato & Rohla, 2020). Crimes such as fraud, property, or drugs are strongly influenced by private prisons. The incarceration rate is increased through the increase of guilty sentences but no changes in total trials. This is usually observed in corrupt states. A case example of private prisons that are more prone to corruption is the kids-for-cash scandal. Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were caught accepting bribes from for-profit prisons by sending more underaged criminals to said prisons. Usually, these kids are on trial for low level misdemeanor. However, the judge accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments to rig the trial so that they went to juvenile detention center. People also argued that private prisons earn a steady stream of inmates from law reformation that allow the law to be more strict. Stricter laws means higher inmates, meaning higher income. The system leads to private prisons putting their efforts to lobby with the law. People argued that this was the reason that the war on drugs was started. Another way to increase profit is to reduce the cost. However, reducing cost means lower care for the prisoners. If the point of prisons is to rehabilitate the criminals so that they would not return to prison, then private prisons are working themselves out of business.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Indonesia is currently considering the solution of privatizing the prisons to solve the overcrowding problems. However, this business line is not suited for a government that is high in corruption rates. High levels of incarceration rate is very desirable for businesses that thrive on high crime rates. By privatizing prisons, the government would inadvertently induce the demand, therefore does not really solve the overcrowding problem. To reduce the overcrowding, the government could not only focus on one of the steps in the legal system. The government could reform the law system so that prisons are reserved for stricter criminals. They could also create a better system so that there would be a higher number of pardons, amnesty, or clemency. Another way is to focus on the point of rehabilitation so that the ex-prisoners would not return to prison. Ways to do that is by focusing on creating a better rehabilitation program. Until then, prison will only be a place for someone to learn about committing crimes more professionally.
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