Indonesia releases prisoners to curb COVID-19 spread: Should people worry?

Officers And Prisoners In The Sun Strengthen Immunity

Accompanied by wardens officers, activities carried out by prisoners to strengthen the body's immunity and avoid the disease virus attack. Source: Dasril Roszandi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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In accordance with UN recommendations, the Indonesian government has freed a number of prisoners to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country's overcrowded prisons. How does this measure work in Indonesia?

As of 20 April, the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights

has released more than 38,000 prisoners

through an assimilation and integration program, in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country's overcrowded prisons.

However, it is reported that some of those released

were again arrested by the police

for committing criminal acts.

A woman (C) reacts after she was released from prison, due to concerns of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Lhoknga near Banda Aceh on April 6, 2020. Source: CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP via Getty Images

Is it the right measure to do when many people are also experiencing financial difficulties due to the coronavirus outbreak? Do people need to be more vigilant?

SBS Indonesian speaks to Dr Rakhman Ardi - an expert in social cognition and cyber media, who is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, Airlangga University, Surabaya - on the matter.

Dr Ardi says that public fear is only natural because negative news tends to be more attached than positive one.

"Negative emotions often have more power than the positive ones," he says. But he also warns of a bias in society caused by media coverage.

"The media must also provide an education that prison is not only related to exclusion but also relates to how people can be trained to return to society so that there should be no stigmatisation with people who have indeed committed criminal acts," Dr Ardi explains, adding that ex-convicts can also return to live in society normally.

Listen to the full conversation.

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