Shocking conditions in prisons

INMATES at several archaic prisons here are still using buckets – and sharing them – to relieve themselves.

This was among the shocking findings of the Parliamentary Special Committee on Human Rights, Elections and Institutional Reforms that was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

Inmates at these prisons will have to continue sharing the same bucket because renovation work at the prisons cannot be done immediately.

“The committee takes note that there still exists the bucket system at pre-war prisons.

“The Prisons Department has proposed changes to the prisons concerned. However, these pre-war prisons cannot be renovated owing to the age of their structures.

“New ones can instead be built over the original site,” committee chairman William Leong told a press conference in the Parliament building yesterday.

He said the six pre-war prisons still in use were Penang Prison (173 years), Taiping Prison (149 years), Seremban Prison (142 years), Batu Gajah Rehabilitation Centre (121 years), Muar Correctional Centre (96 years), and Pengkalan Chepa Prison (73 years).

Leong cited Penang Prison as being overcrowded as there are currently 1,262 inmates although the prison can only house a maximum of 1,100 inmates.

Of these, he said 65% of the inmates were on remand while 35% were convicts serving their sentences.

He said the committee has recommended that the practice of inmates having to share buckets be stopped immediately at the Penang Prison.

Leong added that affected inmates would be given separate buckets.

He said work to renovate the toilets at the prison will take about three years to complete.

As of 2021, there were 99,000 inmates in prisons nationwide, of which 10,000 were related to the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota), he added.

On overcrowding in prisons, Leong said that this was due to the high number of drug addicts.

He said that between 60,000 and 70,000 inmates, or between 60% and 65%, were drug addicts.

These inmates, he said, were deemed “personal non-violent drug users.”