BANTEN RANKS THIRD IN DRUG-RELATED CRIMES

SERANG: Despite its high number of drug-related convicts, Banten
does not have special narcotics prisons, an official said Monday.

As of October, 2,700 people were incarcerated for drug-related
crimes this year, said Siswadi, the head of the narcotics unit at
the provincial justice and human rights department.

There are 6,000 people imprisoned in Banten.

Banten ranks third after Jakarta and East Java in terms of the
number of drug-related offenses handled by the department.

In Tangerang Women's Penitentiary in Banten, for instance, 200 of
its 350 convicts are doing time for drugs, he said as quoted by Antara.

Two years ago, the provincial administration planned to build a
narcotics prison in Cilegon but the plan was never realized.

The province has nine penitentiaries, all of which are overcrowded.

Siswadi said Tangerang's penitentiaries were built to accommodate
800 prisoners but had 3,000 on average.