KAJANG, March 21 — The Prisons Department will be empowering further its programmes and systems in an effort to deal with the issue of congestion in prisons, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
He said the empowerment measures included the Parole System, Compulsory Attendance Order, Release of Prisoners on Licence, Resident Reintegration Programme and Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme.
"Through these programmes and systems, prisoners will undergo employment training in the manufacturing, plantation and services sectors outside of prison and enjoy wage incentives on par with other workers.
"Apart from that, the Community Correctional Centres use dormitories provided by employers to place parolees, persons licensed for release and persons under supervision. This initiative thus reduces the cost of management expenses and allows prisoners to continue working once they are released," he said.
He said this at a press conference after officiating the 233rd Prisons Day Celebration with the theme 'Reformasi ke Arah Pusat Pembangunan Peradaban Budaya Kemanusiaan’ at the Kajang Prison College, here, today.
Commenting further, he said that so far, a total of 79,131 inmates have been placed in 93 institutions under the management of the Prisons Department across the country and that number exceeds 11.2 per cent or 7,312 inmates from the total capacity of 65,762 inmates.
Saifuddin Nasution said in addition, the ministry also took the approach of transferring prisoners from overcrowded prisons to less congested prisons as a measure to deal with the issue.
"If there is an allocation, we can build a new prison besides taking the approach of upgrading old prisons such as Taiping Prison, Perak, Alor Setar Prison, Kedah and Pengkalan Chepa Prison, Kelantan to increase the capacity of the number of inmates.
Earlier, the Prison Day celebration today was held in appreciation of Prison staff and members of the public who have contributed to the Prisons Department.
— Bernama
