A major shake-up is on the cards in the criminal justice system in Bali.
The island’s most notorious prison, famous around the world for locking up some of Bali’s most prolific criminals, including Australian nationals, could be about to be moved away from the top tourism resort areas.
Bali’s Kerobokan Prison is one of the world’s most notorious jails.
The prison is located in North Kuta, just a stone’s throw away from some of the island’s busiest and most popular tourism resorts, including Kuta, Legian, and Seminyak.
The prison is notorious for a number of reasons, not least for locking up some of the most prolific criminals Indonesia has ever seen, and for being chronically overcrowded.
All that could be about to change as Bali’s Governor Wayan Koster and the Regent of Badung Wayan Adi Arnawa have started the process of relocating the prison to a less populated area of the province, away from tourism resorts, and to a site with far more space.
The new prison could be developed in Jembrana Regency in the west of Bali. Jembrana Regency is the least developed regency of Bali in terms of tourism.
Initial updates on the project suggest that the Bali Provincial Government would fund the move and support the Badung Regency Government in the transition since Kerobokan Prison currently falls within their jurisdiction.
Regent Arnawa told reporters following a site visit with Governor Koster, “I went to Jembrana to accompany the Governor to see several locations that will be used as prisons because we will move Kerobokan Prison.”
One reason Kerobokan Prison needs to be relocated is the volume of traffic that accumulates near the building.
As part of long-term spatial planning, the roads around Kerobokan Prison need to be widened, particularly along Jalan Teuku Umar Barat–Tangkuban Perahu in Kerobokan Kelod.
This need for improved transportation infrastructure in the North Kuta area is critical as demand for tourism and development in Badung Regency grows. Tourism leaders in the area have already targeted to welcome 6.5 million tourists in 2026.
With Kerobokan Prison already deemed overcrowded and the site now impeding provincial development, the move to relocate the prison should solve a number of problems for local authorities. Any move of prisoners is a long way off yet, as the new prison would have to be built from the ground up.
Kerobokan Prison, often referred to as Hotel K, is a prison that is often referred to due to its high number of international inmates and its proximity to top resorts. The prison is located just 4km from the heart of Canggu.
The prison was originally built to house 300 inmates in the late 1970s, but figures from 2017, which were the last formally available, say that upwards of 1,400 inmates are housed within the complex.
Both men and women, both domestic and international criminals, too.
Famous inmates of Kerobokan Prison have included Andrew Chan, Si Yi Chen, Renae Lawrence, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, and Myuran Sukumaran, all better known as the Bali Nine.
As well as two of the 2002 Bali Bombers, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Imam Samudra, prior to their execution in 2008, and until earlier this month, British Lindsay Sandiford, who had been sentenced to death, but has now been repatriated to the UK.
Indonesia is known to have some of the strictest drug laws in the world, and this has led to dozens of international drug criminals being locked up in Kerobokan Prison.
Tourists traveling to Bali are reminded that Indonesia has a zero-tolerance approach to drugs, including narcotics that are legal in other parts of the world, such as marijuana.
It is important to note that any product containing cannabis, whether THC, CBD, or its derivatives, is highly illegal in Indonesia, and anyone caught carrying drugs in Indonesia will be met with the full force of the law.
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