Tuesday June 9, 2009
Government drafting prisoner exchange laws
KOTA KINABALU: Malaysians in prisons overseas will soon be able to serve out their sentences at home as laws for a prison transfer programme are being drafted, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.
He said the programme which would be put in place with the amendment to the Prison Act would also allow foreign inmates in Malaysian prisons to serve their sentences in their respective home countries.
Friendly couple: Hishammuddin (right) and his wife Datin Seri Tengku Marsilla Tengku Abdullah chatting with Sabah Prisons Department staff members after the launch of the new building of the Sabah Prisons headquarters in Kota Kinabalu yesterday. Foreign prisoners made up over 40% or 15,279 of the 37,242 inmates in 30 prisons nationwide.
“We hope this move will not only allow us to bring back our people in foreign prisons, but also overcome the problem of overcrowding in ours,” he said at the opening of the RM7.6mil new Sabah Prisons Department headquarters in Kepayan here yesterday.
Hishammuddin said the Home Ministry was also looking at various other ways to tackle overcrowding problem.
This, he said, included the expansion of the parole system which was introduced in July last year and introducing alternative sentences which did not require imprisonment for minor offences and those who contravene the Immigration Act.
“This is part of our overall plan to reform all the laws under us to meet the current need,” he said.
He said the Government had also approved the plan to build 16 new prisons nationwide with a holding capacity of 18,000.
The total holding capacity of all prisons nationwide currently stands at 32,000.
He added that steps were being taken to provide vocational and skills training under the integrated school concept in prisons and Henry Gurney School, which is a juvenile detention facility.
“We want to stress on rehabilitation programmes in our detention centres so that prisoners, especially young criminals can learn new skills to prepare them for lives outside the prison once they are released,” he said.
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