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In November 2025, the Indonesian Directorate General of Corrections (DGC) released the Correctional System Roadmap for 2025-2045.
While the roadmap includes many important points, one idea in particular deserves special attention for its relevance to climate change as one of the most critical issues of the 21st century: green prisons. The inclusion of green prisons in the Roadmap indicates that the DGC has recognised the impact of climate change and the ongoing ecological crisis on inmates’ lives.
However, several crucial aspects of the green prisons framework are missing. This may hinder its implementation and even undermine the goals of a correctional system.
Green prisons
The term ‘green prisons’ is closely associated with green criminology, a field within criminology that prioritises the environment as the central concept in its theoretical framework.
Initially, green criminology focused primarily on crimes against the environment, the regulatory and legislative responses to environmental crime, and alternative forms of justice related to environmental issues.
However, over time, proponents of green criminology have grown increasingly interested in how imprisonment affects the environment and how the environment affects imprisonment. Imprisonment incurs high environmental costs, as prison operations consume large amounts of energy, water, and other resources.
In response to the growing environmental concerns, green prisons have been initiated in many countries. In general terms, green prisons refer to prison facilities that align with environmental goals and requirements.
This concept extends beyond eco-friendly construction and infrastructure; it encompasses an environmentally responsible system that includes not only sustainable infrastructure but also waste management, energy efficiency, water conservation, and sustainability education.
Many countries have begun efforts to implement more environmentally responsible prison operations. Based on current practices, these countries have taken steps towards sustainability by improving energy efficiency, transitioning to environmentally friendly technologies, managing waste effectively, providing education on sustainable living, and promoting a circular economy within their prisons.
Indonesia’s Correctional System Roadmap has now followed their lead. It includes several important steps that the country needs to take to create green prisons, including:
- improving prison infrastructure by building new, environmentally friendly prisons or adjusting existing prisons to comply with green infrastructure indicators or standards.
- establishing a green ecosystem through environmental sustainability campaigns, zero-waste promotion, and the circular economy.
Not green enough
But despite these promising steps, the Roadmap does not pay sufficient attention to the management of clean water.
In fact, the scarcity of clean water is already a chronic problem for prisons in several areas in Indonesia. The failure to fulfil inmates’ basic needs – including access to clean water – has already triggered at least one riot in an overcrowded prison in Indonesia.
Additionally, although the preservation of biodiversity in prison settings is an important aspect of green prisons, the Roadmap has omitted it completely. The existence of a variety of animals and plants in a prison environment could improve the inmates’ quality of life.
The Indonesian prison system is actually going in the opposite direction. To support the government’s priority program in food security, several prisons are instead ordered to plant non-native plants in their areas.
These gaps could limit the effectiveness of green prison initiatives set in the Roadmap.
Unsustainably green?
The greening of prisons is an important initiative. However, criminologists have raised concerns about its negative aspects.
‘Greenwashing’ is a significant obstacle to many efforts to implement more environmentally responsible practices. This term refers to unsubstantiated claims that certain practices contribute to environmental sustainability and preservation. In the context of prisons, the concerns about greenwashing often focus on the increasing trend of constructing more unsustainable prisons but labelling them ‘green’.
Certainly, the establishment of new green prisons may increase the general capacity of the prison system, but maintenance issues can undermine this. For example, in newly introduced “smart” prisons on Nusakambangan Island, the lack of a dedicated routine maintenance budget from the central government leaves the existing security technology system unable to operate properly.
Without regular maintenance, any initiative to build new, environmentally friendly and sustainable prisons will end up as unsustainable itself.
The establishment of effective waste management systems, the promotion of a circular economy, and the development of a green economy are crucial components of green prisons, and they often involve inmates as the labour force. However, there is a significant disquiet regarding the potential exploitation of these inmates in those activities, making them into a form of slave labour.
This exploitation directly contradicts the fundamental principle of greening prisons, which is based on the idea of justice for all. True justice cannot be achieved while the rights of vulnerable groups are violated.
Don’t sacrifice correctional goals
Another important consideration in green prisons concerns prisoner rehabilitation.
Ultimately, the primary goal of the Indonesian correctional system is to rehabilitate offenders so they can reintegrate into society and avoid re-engaging in criminal activities.
If prisons become too preoccupied with developing environmentally friendly infrastructure, attention to prisoner rehabilitation may decline. This, in turn, could reduce the necessary interventions for prisoners, resulting in a higher risk of reoffending upon their release.
Therefore, efforts to implement green prisons must not be separated from the basic goal of rehabilitating prisoners.
For the Correctional Services Roadmap 2025-2045 to have any real prospect of producing greener, safer and more effective prisons, an urgent rewrite is needed.
