Yusti Probowati, Home for Ex-Juvenile Delinquents
Yusti Probowati, 54, has been visiting children in prison for the last 15 years, trying to understand their problems and fears. She then went on to establish Rumah Hati (home of the heart), a halfway house that helps prepare them for starting their new lives.
Yusti is a fairly well established lecturer. However, she did not want to spend all her time teaching and speaking at seminars. Her heart kept asking, what could she do for society?
The question eventually led Yusti to start visiting Blitar Children’s Prison in 2003, the same year she earned her doctorate in legal psychology from Gadjah Mada University. “I studied legal psychology because at the dinner table, I often heard my parents talk about the cases they handled. I was interested in observing the judges’ cognitive processes in court cases,” said the psychology professor of the University of Surabaya in East Java. Yusti’s father and mother were both judges.
At first, Yusti wanted to share her knowledge with judges, but she realized this would be difficult. So she also turned her attention to child prisons that were short of counseling staff. Counselors at these prisons generally served more than 150 juvenile delinquents.
From working with the children in prison, she grew to know a child whose parents were divorced and who lived with a grandmother of advanced age. There was another whose mother was a migrant worker and he lived with a neglectful father, and an orphan who lived with a neighbor who was busy with their own children.
“These children convicted of theft, murder or assault are 16 to 17 years old. Yet, some are younger. Some come from dysfunctional families and broke the law,” Yusti said.
What concerned Yusti was that more and more children were getting into trouble with the law.
“When I first visited Blitar Children’s Prison, it had only 80 children. But the number grew every year and it now has more than 300 children,” she said.
As a psychologist, Yusti tried to understand the situation these children had faced. She tries to be a good listener. As a result, she grew close to the children at the prison. “Basically, the children needed love. They want to be heard and asked to speak,” said Yusti, who travels by bus between Surabaya and Blitar at least once a month to visit the child inmates.
She was touched by the inmates’ reply when she asked them what they wanted on her next visit. “They don’t ask for good food like other children do. They only ask for mi ayam [chicken
noodles]. Children outside the prison can enjoy this dish at any time, but not children in prison,” she said.
The prison officers are grateful for Yusti being there. They asked her to teach them how to provide therapy for the inmates.
During one of her visits to the prison, Yusti met Margret Rueffler, a clinical psychologist from Switzerland. Rueffler was also interested in helping the child inmates. The two of them often visited juvenile facilities together, including those in Tangerang, Banten, and Kutoarjo, Central Java.
From their discussions, they developed a therapy module for juvenile delinquents and trained the prison staff in applying the module. The Law and Human Rights Ministry’s directorate general of correctional facilities at the time asked Yusti to do the same at Karangasem Children’s Prison in Bali.
Yusti once escorted a German visitor to the child prison. The visitors suggested Yusti to think about that the inmate had to be ready to rejoin society upon their release. “That was true. Some of the children had no parents. Where they would go? Even if they had parents, they might not be welcomed home. They indeed needed to be prepared to return to society,” said Yusti, who often assists the police and the Corruption Eradication Commisson (KPK).
Resistance from residents
Together ith Rueffler, Yusti founded a halfway house in Jombang for former juvenile delinquents in 2010 with funding from Kindernothilfe, a German social organization. Unfortunately, many local residents who objected to living next door to former inmates opposed their noble aims.
Yusti and Rueffler were forced to look for a rented house in other locations where the people would accept the former inmates. Finally in 2011, they set up a halfway house and called it Rumah Hati. The shelter was open to former inmates of juvenile facilities of all ethnicities and religions. Rumah Hati initially had room for only eight juvenile residents. “We were forced to select the prospective residents rigorously, because the demand was high. We accepted only boys,” said Yusti.
The shelter’s residents must obey the house rules and learn to be independent by cooking and cleaning the house every day. There are counselors who attend to them 24 hours, but they can still pursue their own activities freely. Once a month, a group of psychologists visit from the University of Surabaya.
All residents are free to choose their own self-improvement courses according to their interests. Courses are available from Mondays to Fridays, and the children have group study sessions on Saturdays and Sundays. “They receive guidance over six months. We bear their living and education costs,” said Yusti.
Even though the funding from Germany ceased in 2013, Rumah Hati continues to survive. Rueffler is no well strong enough to travel to Indonesia and so Yusti generally runs the shelter on
her own. Five years ago, she had to seek additional funds to keep Rumah Hati going. “Today, we need Rp 11 million a month to pay salaries, living expenses and the children’s education,” she said.
She was grateful for the assistance she received from many parties, including University of Surabaya lecturers and alumni. They also volunteered as assistants and raised funds through seminars.
Rumah Hati has rehabilitated than 80 children, some of who went on to become masseurs, open barbershops and work at oil palm plantations in Malaysia. Yusti created a social media group so they could stay in contact with each other. Rumah Hati holds a reunion once a year, usually after Idul Fitri.
“It’s nice to look at their lives today. Some of them tell us that they have a job or a business, that they already owned motorcycles bikes and other things. Their life stories are the reward for my efforts,” she said.
Yusti Probowati
Husband: M. Pujiono Santoso
Children: Annisa Rizkiayu Leofianti (psychologist); Adistyana Damaranti (accountant)
Education: Bachelors to doctorate in legal psychology, Gadjah Mada University
Occupation: Dean, psychology faculty, University of Surabaya (2011-2015; 2015-2019)
Achievements:
- Invited participant, International Visitor Leader Program (IVLP) 2017 on Child Protection, US State Department
- Inspiring woman 2014, Semen Indonesia
- Inspiring woman, Tupperware SheCAN! 2013
- 100 Inspiring Women 2012, Kartini magazine