Covid-19: Prisons Dept told to design new SOP

 

COVID-19 | The National Security Council has ordered the Prisons Department to design new procedures to curb the spread of Covid-19.

"This includes procedures for bringing detainees to court and procedures for transferring detainees from one centre to another," said senior minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He noted that the locations of two major outbreaks - Kedah and Sabah - were mostly related to detention centres but the spread to the community was contained.

Two recent major clusters - Tembok (1,047 active cases) and Benteng LD (951) - started in jails and immigrations centres, where conditions are cramped.

The authorities have repeatedly assured that the surge in Covid-19 cases was mostly due to the numbers coming out from such facilities.

However, jailers or detainees who were being transferred have led to new transmissions.

The Tembok cluster, which began at the Alor Setar Prison, has spread amongst the wardens who then spread the virus to other states in Peninsular Malaysia.

Likewise, the Benteng LD cluster had spread the virus to police stations in other parts of Sabah.

Yesterday, the Prisons Department said six detention centres have recorded Covid-19 cases in the past two days.

They are Alor Setar prison, Tawau prison, Pokok Sena prison, Kamunting Correctional Centre, Penang Prison and Kajang Women's Prison,

More than 1,200 cases involving detainees, staff and staff family members have been recorded in the detention centres.

In response, the department said it will move at least 2,300 convicts of the Dangerous Drugs Act to National Service camps, which have been gazetted as temporary prisons.

Convicts sentenced to less than one-year imprisonment and have less than three months remaining will be released under the Prisoner Release by Licence (PBSL) scheme, the department said.

Some 11,018 prisoners are eligible for PBSL, and all released through this scheme must first meet criteria set by the Health Ministry before they are allowed to return to the community. - Mkini