Death toll from Indonesia jail blaze at 44 amid focus on overcrowding

Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) police officers carry a bag containing the body of a victim of a prison fire at a police hospital for identification following a fire overnight at an overcrowded jail in Jakarta, Indonesia September 8, 2021, in this photo taken by Antara Foto/Asprilla Dwi Adha/via REUTERS.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The death toll from a blaze that tore through an Indonesian jail has risen to 44, as authorities pledged to look at whether more inmates could receive rehabilitation for drug-related offences to ease chronic overcrowding in the prison system.

Wednesday's fire at the penitentiary in Tangerang, on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, took hold in a prison block housing more than three times the number of prisoners it was designed to contain.