Luxury Indonesian jail cells come with hi-fi speakers and flat-screen TVs for the right price

A raid at Sukamiskin prison turned up several cells that featured modern bathrooms with hot showers, full-sized refrigerators, coffee makers, microwave ovens and stereo loudspeakers

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Inmates at the Indonesian prison paid bribes for luxurious cells equipped with air conditioning, flat-screen televisions and private washrooms. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:51pm, 23 Jul 2018Updated: 8:05pm, 23 Jul 2018

Inmates at an Indonesian prison paid for luxury cells equipped with air conditioning, flat-screen TVs and private washrooms, officials said, in the country’s latest corruption scandal.

Jail staff allegedly took bribes of 200-500 million rupiah (US$14,000-US$35,000) from inmates to renovate cells and supply banned mobile phones or even let them temporarily leave prison, Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said.

Anti-corruption agents arrested five people connected to the scandal at Sukamiskin prison, including inmates and the warden who got cash and a pair of vehicles to look the other way, it added.

Some of the home appliances that were collected from inmates at the Sukamiskin jail in Bandung. PhotoL AFP

A raid on Sunday turned up several cells that featured modern bathrooms with hot showers, full-sized refrigerators, coffee makers, microwave ovens and stereo loudspeakers, the KPK said.

“We apologise to the Indonesian people,” Sri Puguh Budi Utami, the director general of Indonesia’s prisons, told reporters late Sunday.

“We’re very sorry that we still have not been able to maximise our monitoring systems.”