“FULL-TIME” CRIMINALS STUCK IN THE SYSTEM
Mr Dobby Chew, the chief executive officer of HAYAT – a human rights organisation – said that the home detention proposal could be seen as an expansion of the parole programme to reduce the prison population.
Mr Chew said that coupled with suitable work opportunities, this alternative could be effective in keeping people out of the prison system and allowing them to contribute and reintegrate into society.
“In the long term, it would be to keep people from going back to prison, especially those who are young. We don’t want them to be stuck in the system and become a ‘full-time’ criminal,” he told CNA.
Mr Chew said that it made sense that the prisons would start with detainees who were under remand as they had yet to be proven guilty.
Remand is the temporary detention of an individual after arrest, pending trial or other legal proceedings. An individual can be in remand after being charged if they are denied bail or are unable to pay the bail set by the court.
Criminal lawyer Salim Bashir said that Malaysia lacks specific laws to implement home detention, although the Home Minister had the exclusive power to decide and designate any location as a detention centre under the law.
He said that any new law should bestow on the court the discretion to decide whether the convicts or those in remand will be given home detention based on the facts and other relevant considerations.
“The government needs to formulate some guidelines on eligibility but each distinct fact that led to convictions must be assessed individually by the courts before granting home detention,” he said, adding that home detention has made headway in many regional countries in Asia.
Countries in the region that have home detention include Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
Myanmar has also granted home detentions, including to prominent political figures such as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In Malaysia, the prisons department has introduced several initiatives over the past years to reduce the longstanding issue of overcrowding in prisons.
Besides the parole system that was first introduced in 2008, the prisons department has also introduced the Licensed Release of Prisoners (PBSL) programme, where a total of 31,742 people were granted early release from 2022 to June of this year according to a report by the News Straits Times.
In Malaysia, a prisoner becomes eligible to apply for parole after serving a minimum of half of a sentence that is at least one year in duration.
Prisoners can be considered for PBSL if they have sentences below three years and have served at least one-third of the sentence.
They also must have a guarantee from an employer, family or a non-governmental organisation to provide a place to live and a job following release, the New Straits Times reported.
The prisons department in their Nov 6 statement said that besides reducing overcrowding, the alternatives to imprisonment could prevent high incarceration rates and save government costs.
Former Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin was quoted as saying in news reports in 2021 that it cost the government almost RM5 billion over a five-year period from 2016 to 2021 to operate the country’s prisons, with the average expenditure for a single inmate around RM50 a day.
Mr Saifuddin had said in parliament those remanded for serious crimes that are punishable by death or life sentences would not be eligible for home detention.
He added that offences that involve national security, human trafficking, domestic violence and offences involving children for instance would not be eligible for home detention.
He said that about 20,000 of the 28,000 detainees in remand currently could be considered for home detention while the other 8,000 were considered to come under the serious crimes category.
Dr Sundramoorthy said house arrest should only apply to first-time, non-serious, and non-violent offenders. He hoped that besides those in remand, first-time convicts would also get a chance for home detention.
“The same principles would apply for both,” he said.
He said that it was a “grave” mistake to send the first-timers who had not committed serious crimes to prison because it would cause them more harm than good.
“Who are you going to be associating with in prison? You don’t want them to socialise with serious offenders and extend their network. Research has shown that those given chances are not likely to reoffend,” he said.
The prisons department said in their statement that the recidivism rate or repeat offending under similar programmes such as parole is 0.24 per cent, compared to 17.6 per cent for those who only undergo rehabilitation in facilities or prisons.
Dr Sundramoorthy proposed for an independent body of experts to study the models adopted by other countries including the likes of Singapore.
In the Lion City for instance, the home detention scheme is aimed at promoting reintegration of inmates into society with the help of their family members and community.
The inmates will serve their remaining sentences at their residences under specified conditions, which include curfew monitoring, urine testing and counselling.
They could either be working, studying or involved in community service but will need to wear an electronic tag so that their whereabouts can be monitored.
Mr Saifuddin said those under home detention in Malaysia would also have to wear an electronic device.
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