KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — The Malaysian Prisons Department will ensure that the incentives and allocations announced in Budget 2023 will be fully utilised to enhance and strengthen the department's correctional services.
Prisons director-general Datuk Nordin Muhamad said the provision showed the government's concern in making the Prison Transformation agenda a success to ensure that two-thirds of the inmates undergo community rehabilitation programmes by 2030.
"This is in line with the goal of the Malaysian Prisons Department to become a 'Civilised Humane Culture Development Centre'," he said in a statement yesterday.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz on Friday proved that the government always took the welfare and the implementation of rehabilitation programs seriously through the provision of incentives.
During the tabling of Budget 2023 on Friday (October 7), Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz announced the government’s AgroPrison Initiative amounting to RM10 million for agricultural and plantation activities involving 70 hectares of Prisons Department land, and the additional tax deduction for employers who employed ex-prisoners was extended to include ex-Henry Gurney School inmates.
The department also obtained an allocation of RM18 million for the purchase of body scanners as well as the upgrading of facilities involving five prisons, including the Seremban Prison in Negeri Sembilan.
Another RM28 million was allocated to continue the construction of living quarters under the Prisons Department which includes the Labuan Correctional Centre and the Correctional Academy of Malaysia.
— Bernama
