Search extends to possible border routes
The seven escaped from Lapas Narkotika Kelas IIA Jayapura, a Class IIA narcotics prison headed by warden Jimreves Engel Stender Muloke. Speaking Thursday, Muloke said the prison had formally sought help from Jayapura Police to find and recapture them, Tribunnews.com reported.
Jayapura Police Chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Dionisius Helan confirmed that police placed the inmates on the wanted list after receiving that request. Muloke said their personal details had been sent to police. Fajar Papua also reported that photographs of all seven, including the three Papua New Guinea nationals, had been distributed to officers.
Security officials have identified several routes the escapees might take. Muloke said the three PNG nationals were unlikely to approach official crossings because they had entered Indonesia illegally. He expected them to use unofficial paths through forested areas to avoid authorities and return to PNG.
In a separate account reported by Fajar Papua, Muloke said the three generally lacked border-crossing cards, the basis for suspicions that they had entered Indonesia illegally.
Warden describes escape and staffing gaps
Muloke told Fajar Papua that the inmates got out by opening the cell door and scaling the prison's perimeter wall.
The warden said the facility has too few security officers for its hundreds of inmates, with about eight to ten officers assigned to guard a single cell block. Staff cannot cover every area, he said, allowing people outside to throw marijuana into the prison frequently.
Overcrowding across Indonesia's prison system
Indonesia has recorded at least six successful prison escapes so far in 2026. Persistent overcrowding and shortages of staff have contributed to repeated breakouts nationwide.
Figures from the Directorate General of Corrections, reported by Databoks (Katadata), put the population of Indonesia's prisons and detention centers at 279,372 on September 30, 2026. Their combined capacity was 154,238, putting occupancy at 181 percent.
East Kalimantan had the highest provincial occupancy rate: 273.6 percent, with 13,137 inmates in facilities designed for 4,801. North Maluku was the only province below capacity, at 83.8 percent.
Iwa Maulana, a researcher at Indonesia's Centre for Detention Studies, told news.com.au that some facilities have one correctional officer for every 40 inmates, or an even higher number of inmates per officer. That staffing level makes it difficult to ensure that both prisoners and staff comply with rules, he said.
Previous mass escapes have involved severely crowded prisons. In Kutacane, Aceh Province, about 50 inmates broke out of a penitentiary in 2025, according to news.com.au. The facility reportedly housed 368 people despite having room for 100.
At Sialang Bungkuk prison in Pekanbaru in 2017, around 450 inmates escaped after being released from their cells to pray. Authorities said five guards were on duty overseeing about 1,900 inmates at the prison, which had a capacity of 300.
