KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st century, inmates at several prisons here are still relying on the bucket toilet system.
This shocking discovery by the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Human Rights, Elections and Institutional Reforms was contained in its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 28).
Even worse, it continued, inmates at these archaic prisons are forced to share the same bucket.
"The Committee takes note that the bucket system (is still in use) at pre-war prisons.
"The Prisons Department has proposed changes to the prisons concerned.
"However, they cannot be renovated owing to the age of the structures.
"New ones can instead be built over the original site," committee chairman William Leong told a press conference in Parliament.
He said the six pre-war prisons still in use were the Penang Prison (173 years old), Taiping Prison (149 years), Seremban Prison (142 years), Batu Gajah Rehabilitation Centre (121 years), Muar Correctional Centre (96 years) and Pengkalan Chepa Prison (73 years).
Leong cited Penang Prison as overcrowded, with 1,262 inmates there currently although the facility can only house a maximum of 1,100.
Of this number, he said 65% were on remand while 35% are convicts serving out their sentences.
Leong said the committee recommended that the practice of sharing buckets be stopped immediately, with a separate bucket given to each inmate.
He said work to renovate the toilets at the prison will take about three years to complete.
As of 2021, Leong said, there were 99,000 inmates in prisons nationwide, of whom 10,000 were related to the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012, Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) 1959 and Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015.
On overcrowding, Leong said a key factor was the large number of incarcerated drug addicts – between 60,000 and 70,000 of the total prison population.
These inmates, he said, were deemed "personal non-violent drug users".
