SEREMBAN: The proposed House Arrest Bill, which would allow remanded suspects for non-serious offences to undergo home detention, will be tabled in Parliament this year, says Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
The Home Minister said the bill was among the measures being proposed to reduce prison overcrowding.
"Of some 80,000 inmates in the 43 jails and correctional centres nationwide, some 29,000 are those under remand.
"The proposal is to allow those facing sentences of 10 years and below upon conviction to undergo home detention rather than be remanded so that we can reduce prison overcrowding," he told reporters after presenting excellent service awards to Prisons Department staff working in the central region on Monday (May 5).
Saifuddin said the ministry data also showed that the police received 395,000 reports a month on average and drug-related cases made up a large portion of these.
The drug cases reported are under section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for possession and 15(1) for consumption.
"Data has shown that addicts go on to commit 28 other crimes under the Penal Code, such as theft.
"This is why the Machang prison, which has the capacity to house 1,560 inmates, now has 3,184 and out of which 84% are drug-related cases," he said.
Citing another example, Saifuddin said the Pengkalan Chepa prison, which was built to house 1,500 inmates, now has 2,979 and of these, 63% were for drug-related offences.
He said there was a pressing need to address prison overcrowding, as this can lead to a host of other problems, such as hygiene and inmates getting into fights.
"Overcrowding can also derail rehabilitation programmes carried out by the authorities for prisoners.
"So having legislation where we can allow those under remand for non-serious offences to undergo home detention, where we can monitor their movement, is also more humane than putting them in prison," he said.
Saifuddin said the authorities were also looking at other measures to further reduce overcrowding such as putting prisoners under community-based correction programmes, including parole or Release on Licence Programme.
He said making them undergo community-related programmes has proven to be effective in reducing the rate of recidivism.
