Malaysians prisons have been vastly overcrowded even before the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO), said a Prisons Department spokesperson.
The spokesperson revealed that there are currently 73,000 prisoners being housed in spaces intended to hold 52,000 inmates.
The officer said this in response to a Malaysiakini report that Prisons' director-general Zulkifli Omar had written to Federal Court chief registrar Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh, requesting the courts to stop jailing people for violating the movement control order (MCO).
According to the letter, which has been confirmed to be authentic, Zulkifli said that as of April 1, 378 people have been sent to prison for violating the MCO.
The spokesperson told Malaysiakini that the move is causing further overcrowding in prisons where social distancing is "impossible".
The officer added that the letter was supposed to be an inter-agency document and only a suggestion made to prevent Covid-19 outbreak in prisons nationwide.
According to the officer, currently, there are about 73,000 prisoners held at 50 prison facilities nationwide.
The facilities were supposed to be for 52,000 inmates only.
"With the current situation, there is no way for social distancing in overcrowded prisons.
"The inmates are already in prisons and have not mixed with people from the outside, so there is no risk of Covid-19 outbreak.
"If it were to start in prisons, then where else can we put the inmates? It would be a problem not only to the prisons but also to the country," said the officer.
In the letter, Zulkifli warned that a Covid-19 outbreak in prison could spread uncontrollably and threaten the lives of prisoners and prison staff.
He went on to recommend that the courts mete out community service punishments under the Offenders Compulsory Attendance Act 1954. - Mkini
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