The concept of Rechterlijk Pardon as a critique on the effectiveness of imprisonment in Indonesia

This paper discusses a large number of criticisms on the effectiveness of imprisonment, which in reality cannot decrease the level of criminality in a particular country so that other alternatives are required to solve this problem. Moreover, this research revealed that judges in Indonesia tend to determine the imprisonment verdict on the criminal act with a criminal charge of under five years. The concept of Rechterlijk Pardon which will be applied in the Draft of the Indonesian Criminal Code (RKUHP) and has been implemented in several countries are also one of the alternative penal measures to imprisonment and judicial corrective to the legality principle, which in the end is expected that this concept aims at decreasing the level of existing criminality.