Several prisoners in the Indonesian province of Gorontalo celebrated freedom by performing a TikTok dance to the tune of a Spongebob Squarepants theme song, as Indonesia moves to release some 30,000 convicts early to prevent a surge of coronavirus infections in its overcrowded prisons.
According to reports, 66 prisoners at Class II Penitentiary in Gorontalo city were granted parole last week in accordance with the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s regulation — issued in late March amid the COVID-19 pandemic — which stipulates that adult prisoners who have served two-thirds of their sentence are eligible for parole.
With corrections officers filming, some of the released prisoners walked out into freedom and danced right into this TikTok-crazy world.
Prison warden Ignatius Gunaidi said the paroled convicts requested to have the TikTok video taken to express their happiness.
“We gladly accommodated their request,” Ignatius said, as quoted by Liputan 6, adding that their families greeted them with laughter and glee.
Ignatius said that the 66 prisoners had served half or two-thirds of their sentence as of Jan. 31, 2020.
According to 2019 data, the official total holding capacity of all Indonesian prisons is 123,025 but there are nearly double that number of inmates, 246,389, in holding throughout the country.
Related — Indonesian official says overcrowded prisons turn inmates into ‘homosexuals and lesbians’
As of April 7, Indonesia has confirmed 2,738 COVID-19 cases, with 204 recoveries and 221 deaths.
