Prison overcrowding: Kit Siang moots early release of non-serious offenders

CORONAVIRUS | DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang is mooting the early release of non-serious offenders in prison to ease overcrowding, amid a plea by the Prisons Department for courts not to jail those who violate the movement control order.

A Prisons Department spokesperson revealed yesterday that there are currently 73,000 prisoners being housed in spaces intended to hold 52,000 inmates.

Lim said governments in the UK, India, and Indonesia are all considering early release for non-serious offenders amid concerns that Covid-19 could spread in the prison population.

"The Malaysian government should do the same to avert a Covid-19 outbreak in view of the overcrowded conditions in Malaysian prisons, by allowing the early release of prisoners, especially the elderly, people within months of scheduled release, people whose charges are misdemeanours or non-violent felonies, individuals whose health leaves them at particular risk from Covid-19 and whose crime involves no physical harm to another person," he said in a statement today.

Prisons Department director-general Zulkifli Omar had said that as of April 1, 378 people have been sent to prison for violating the MCO.

Hundred more are on trial for MCO related offences.

Lim said under the current overcrowded conditions in prison, social distancing would be impossible.

As such, he said MCO violators sentenced to jail, should have their sentences altered to non-custodial sentences.

"This is also to protect the prison personnel, who would have no personal protective equipment and be most vulnerable if there is a Covid-19 outbreak in the prisons," he said.

The MCO restricts unnecessary movement in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Violating the order is punishable with up to six months in jail, or a fine up to RM1,000, or both.

However, violators may also be slapped with other charges such as obstruction of a public officer carrying out their duties, which carries a jail sentence of up to two years, or a fine up to RM10,000, or both.

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- Mkini