Release prisoners with less than three months left to serve - Harapan

 

The Pakatan Harapan Security Committee has called on Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin to take immediate action to reduce overcrowding in prisons and detention centres.

“As the third wave of Covid-19 erupted in September 2020 stemmed from detention centres, clearly, prison walls cannot trap the virus and it can be transmitted into communities and endanger society.

“The government needs to reconsider the implementation of the Licensed Release of Prisoners Programme (PBSL) for detainees sentenced to less than one year with a remaining sentence of less than three months,” said the committee in a statement today.

The statement was signed by committee members Mohamad Sabu of Amanah, Syahredzan Johan of DAP and PKR's Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh.

The committee also suggested exploring alternative punishments to imprisonment for minor offences such as fines, community service and house arrest with device monitoring.

It further called for the vaccination of undocumented foreigners following the recent detention of 156 immigrants by the Immigration Department.

The committee claimed that the detention of these foreigners undermined measures to reduce the overcrowding of detention centres and hampered efforts to achieve Covid-19 herd immunity (vaccination of 80 percent of the population) under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).

“The detention of undocumented migrants will trigger fear and suspicion that will prevent these groups from taking the vaccine voluntarily.

“Failure to protect migrants with vaccines will result in our society continuing to be exposed to Covid-19, including new variants that are more dangerous and result in more loss of life,” the committee's representatives said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Hazmah alleged that it would be impossible to administer Covid-19 vaccines on undocumented migrants as there would be no way to keep track of their status here. - Mkini