A peek into prison life

Kajang Prison.

KAJANG Prison is located right in the middle of this town in Selangor, about 40km away from Kuala Lumpur.

No new visitors to Kajang, in the Hulu Langat district, would miss the imposing medium-security prison building.

It is now home to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the first Malaysian prime minister to be jailed.

The former premier is one of more than 5,000 prisoners there as at July 2022.

Like all Malaysian prisons, this facility is overcrowded, but it is surprisingly clean and well-maintained.

Our senior prison wardens are even sent overseas to learn from others on how to manage these facilities.

I had the opportunity of visiting both the Kajang and Sungai Buloh prisons several times, where I was allowed access to most parts of these centres in the company of the wardens, to see for myself what the situation there is really like.

I was invited to give motivational talks to the inmates and on one occasion, was even asked to help an inmate facing natural life imprisonment to obtain a royal pardon.

He had served 28 years by then. He was a model prisoner who ran a church service at Kajang Prison.

For a start, it’s nothing like the prisons we see in American TV dramas.

There are no double-decker beds for our inmates. They sleep on the cement floor, on standard latex mattresses that are about 5cm thick.

Those in the good behaviour category are rewarded with a 10cm-thick mattress.

There are about four to six persons in a cell, with a shared open toilet covered by low partial walls with no door.

They have to shower in the cell, too.

Some of the cells have no shower and inmates will have to go to a shower area, known simply as “tempat mandi”.

At Kajang, inmates are served three meals a day, starting at 7am when breakfast is served. The inmates usually have a cup of tea or coffee and a piece of bread. Lunch is around noon and dinner at about 4pm, mainly consisting of rice and curry with chicken or fish.

Former prisoners describe it as “canteen food’’. They eat in the dining hall.

At 10pm, it’s lights out.

The prison is a hot place and it feels like an oven in there.

No fans are provided in the cells. Trees are also not planted in the prison complex as they are deemed unsuitable for security purposes.

Many male inmates strip down to their underwear in the cells. In some areas, though, industrial fans are installed to allow better ventilation to reduce the unbearable heat.

Well-behaved inmates, who wear blue attire, get some form of reward like a desk and possibly a fan.

It is unlikely that Najib will share a cell with five or eight other inmates at Kajang Prison.

While VIP prisoners are expected to be treated the same as others, the prisons would certainly want them to be safe.

Based on what former inmates, wardens and non-governmental organisation visitors say, these VIP prisoners – usually former politicians, lawyers, policemen or corporate figures – would likely be assigned their own cells.

Even Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when he was incarcerated at Sungai Buloh Prison, had his own cell, which was located near the clinic wing.

Politician Lim Guan Eng and Hindraf activist P. Uthayakumar were also held in Kajang Prison.

In both the Kajang and Sungai Buloh prisons, drug addicts and traffickers make up the largest number of inmates, with many rehabilitation programmes drawn up for them.

Unlike in the movies, the average prisoner is usually well-behaved, and they conventionally stay away from trouble.

Sexual relationships in these facilities are regarded as a crime and certainly, any sexual act or even attempting it leads to only one thing – extra prison time.

Prisoners are addressed by their numbers, NOT names, and for newcomers with titles, this certainly needs some getting used to.

Welcome to Kajang Prison.