Rioting inmates seize control of Bali's Kerobokan jail

Another riot flares at Bali's Kerobokan jail

ANOTHER riot has broken out at the violent overcrowded Balinese jail which is home to Schapelle Corby and the Bali 9.

The incident was the latest violent outburst at the jail. On Jan. 12, convict Edi Suwito, 28, was found dead in his cell one day after he was admitted. It turned out he had been tortured by 13 of his fellow inmates.

In June, a National Narcotics Agency (BNN) raid on the prison led to rioting, wounding some investigators and prison officials. 

Bowo said the jail was 300 percent overcrowded and thus prone to violence.

Welcome to the Hotel Kerobokan

Bali’s Kerobokan Prison’s Breakdown on Occupancy and ‘Market Mix’

During his trial, Miftachul (an officer with the Bali Police’s Mobile Brigade) said that he was trafficking the drugs on orders from a prisoner at the notorious Kerobokan Penitentiary. 

“I was forced to do it because my pay from the police wasn’t enough to feed my family,” he told the court.

Police investigate torture killing at Schapelle Corby's Bali prison

Bali jail torture

19 January 2012

Prisoner Died After Hours of Torture by Cellmates: Bali Police

Made Arya Kencana | January 17, 2012

“The victim was sadistically tortured during this period, in which the perpetrators stubbed out lit cigarettes on his genitals among other things,” Benny said, adding that the perpetrators and the victims all shared the same cramped cell at Kerobokan.

Violence reflects overcrowding at Kerobokan Prison

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Bandung | Wed, 01/18/2012 8:32 AM

Phone Theft Suspect Dies in Bali Prison

PHONE THEFT SUSPECT DIES IN BALI PRISON

t's a dysfunctional society -- even the boss Governor Siswanto was too scared to enter the main compound after a recent riot.

THEY come from every corner of the world, from Brazil and India, from Italy and the US. For most of the three million or so tourists who visit every year, the Indonesian island of Bali is paradise, all palm-fringed beaches and ultramarine lagoons, five-star hotels and luxury villas. But the place they call “the island of the gods” has a very dark heart indeed. Sitting on four hectares of prime real estate in the tourist area of Kuta is Kerobokan jail.

“With its tennis court, its manicured gardens, trimmed grass, Hindu temples and green sports area,” writes Kathryn Bonella in her book Hotel K, “the jail resembles a low-budget hotel – on first impression”.

Inside, however, it’s more like a low-budget horror movie

Real estate woes are hampering the construction of a women’s prison, a senior official says. “We are ready to start the construction stage this year because we have already acquired the necessary funding. However, we have yet to get the land required for the construction,” Law and Human Rights Ministry provincial office...

Bali’s chronically over-crowded Kerobokan prison, scene of a prison riot in June 2011, saw a new outbreak of violence result in the death of an inmate on Wednesday, October 5, 2011.

THE 14-year-old NSW boy arrested in Bali after allegedly being caught with a small amount of marijuana may have been set up, his lawyer says.

Denpasar. The government has earmarked Rp 2.8 billion ($325,000) to rehabilitate Bali’s Kerobokan prison, which was damaged during a riot in June. 

Siswanto said it would mostly be used to pay for major repairs on six blocks at the penitentiary where walls and bars were damaged when detainees rioted after an anti-drug squad attempted to seize a suspected drug dealer who was operating from inside the jail. 

Hundreds of inmates at Kerobokan prison went on a violent rampage at dawn Saturday following a botched attempt by National Anti-narcotics Body (BNN) officers to transport a convicted drug dealer.

...

Prison warden Siswanto was kicked in the head by several inmates and suffered bruises to his arms and contusions to his head, while the BNN officer was taken to hospital. The inmates then attacked the prison’s administrative section, ransacking the building and hurling stones at the windows.

A prison riot broke out at Kerobokan Penitentiary in Denpasar, Bali after dozens of angry inmates wreaked havoc during a drug raid conducted by prison officials and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) on Saturday.

... BNN and the prison officials aimed to catch a suspected drug lord who is alleged to run his business from the prison red-handed.

… The drug raid did not end well after inmates attacked officers and hurled things at them. They also broke down the gates of three cellblocks, damaged the prison head's office, burned down the canteen and smashed all the windows.

PRISONERS at a notorious jail on the Indonesian island of Bali have rioted after attacking a warden and an anti-narcotics official who were trying to nab a suspected drug dealer.

Badung chief of detectives Soma Adnyana said it was clear Kerobokan Prison was a major drug distribution centre both in terms of use inside the prison and as an organisational base by drug-ring bosses serving jail sentences.

"We don't have adequate facilities to rehabilitate or treat drug users. It is inhumane to send them to Kerobokan Penitentiary. When they enter the prison they are drug addicts, but when they leave they will be drug users and traffickers," Bali Governor Pastika, explained.

It is no secret that prisons and detention centers in Indonesia facilitate lucrative trade in narcotics worth millions of dollars and involve prison officers, inmates and visitors alike.

Bali is an international tourist destination that over the years has developed into a transit place for international drug syndicates.

A fascinating insight into the prison, Hotel K includes shocking testimonies and black humour.

Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Bali officer Taswem Tarib also complained of the inhumane situation. “We want the House to know that Kerobokan (Prison) is improper, and violates human rights.”

Bali Nine member Martin Stephens has married his Balinese sweetheart in a Kerobokan Prison ceremony.

Last summer, LAPD detectives discovered millions of dollars worth of marijuana plants hidden in O'Melveny Park in Granada Hills. Little seemed to be known about the lone individual charged in the unusual case.

Since then, a tantalizing picture has emerged of 50-year-old suspect Natale "Mike" Gabriele.

A one-time Kennedy High School football-player-turned-surfer moves to the Indonesian island of Bali for the big waves and partying, gets caught with heroin and cocaine in his wet suit, passes much of 2003 to 2005 among murderers and rats in an Indonesia prison, endures brutal beatings following a drunken escape attempt, and eventually buys his early release with money wired by mom.

That narrative comes from the author of "Hotel Kerobokan" (Pan MacMillan), a 2009 book based on interviews with prisoners and staff of Kerobokan Prison.

visit www.kathrynbonella.com

It's a weird world in the hellhole that is Bali's Kerobokan Prison - where vicious bashings, murders, rapes and overdoses co-exist with church services, romance, staged tennis games and bizarre publicity stunts.

Corruption is a constant. For Schapelle Corby, the Bali Nine and other inmates, money can buy almost anything except the most important thing of all - their precious freedom.

It’s been a year since Schapelle Corby lodged a bid for clemency on her 20-year sentence. Since then her family has remained silent, desperate to secure her release. But fears for her sister have forced Mercedes to reveal to New Idea the disturbing extent of Schapelle’s physical and emotional decline. Her hair burnt, her teeth falling out and plagued by delusions she is about to be freed, the Aussie is living a new hell. by Kathryn Bonella

Bali's notorious prison Kerobokan or Hotel K has prisoners of different nationalities. Only few manage to check out of this hellhole, where drugs, rape and instances of corruption are an everyday affair. Ex-Aussie journalist Kathryn Bonella spent several months in Indonesia to lay bare their stories

BOOK REVIEW : Bonella travels deep inside this chaotic, twilight world and uncovers the stories that lie within. But it is a brisk, matter-of-fact account; she lets the horror of the stories speak for itself.

Badung chief of detectives Soma Adnyana said it was clear Kerobokan was a major drug distribution centre both in terms of use inside the prison and as an organisational base by drug-ring bosses serving jail sentences.

Kathryn Bonella leaves no stone unturned in her exploration of the history of this jail. But with all the sex, drugs and violence, you sometimes feel as if Hotel K is unwittingly glamorising a seedy underworld, where everything can be bought.

Thousands of marijuana plants found in Granada Hills park.

The way things are going, the government may have to build a prison just for Australians. Kerobokan Jail, where the inmates are packed in like sardines, is filling up with them. 

The Coast mother of a Bali Nine prisoner says she went bankrupt after funding her son's use of drugs in Kerobokan jail.

Welcome to the Hotel Kerobokan

Exclusive Interview: Balidiscovery.com Talks with Kathryn Bonella, Author of Hard Hitting Expose on Life Behind Bars at Bali's Kerobokan Prison.

Australian Kathryn Bonella is the author of Hotel Kerobokan or Hotel K (U.K. Edition), a stark and no-punches-held expose of life behind the walls of Bali's largest prison

Scratchings From The Cage Floor, BALI, INDONESIA

 Being sent home in handcuffs is not a tempting offer for the br oken Aussie.

Prosecutors demand death be upheld for Bali 9 Rush

An Australian man who has arrived home after five months in a Bali jail for drug offences has called on the government to bring Schapelle Corby home.

"For the past five months, I have witnessed blackmail, bribery and corruption on an unprecedented scale. It is clearly not possible to receive a fair trial in the Bali justice system," he told reporters.

Bestseller - Politics & Government. Data supplied by Nielsen Bookscan's book sales monitoring system

Nielsen BookScan's book sales monitoring system from 1000 retailers nationwide.

DEBORAH Cassrels' story (``Bali prisoners `forced to sign' '', 15/2) shows just how sensitive the latest Kerobokan Prison chief, Siswanto, is to material in my book Hotel Kerobokan. 

Hell on earth behind facade of a retreat

"The walls don't stop them dealing drugs ... far from it".

Visiting Indonesia?

Why not pamper yourself with a luxurious five-star suite at one of the country's prisons?

Scratching from the cage floor - Bali, Indonesia

HANGING murders, corruption, paid sex and widespread drug abuse are part of everyday life in the Indonesian jail housing Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine.

Badung Police and Kerobokan jail authorities are negotiating a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in a new joint bid to curb the drug trade being run from inside the jail and use of illegal drugs by prisoners.

Schapelle Corby prison hell - inside Hotel Kerobokan

Bali Nine member Martin Stephens has married his Balinese sweetheart in a prison ceremony.

Violence reflects overcrowding at Kerobokan Prison

Bali jail torture

19 January 2012