Less than 1% of parolees become repeat offenders
KOTA KINABALU: Involvement of family, community, employers and outsiders in the Malaysian Prisons Department parole system has helped to keep parolees on the straight and narrow path.
Prisons Department drector General Datuk Sri Zulkifli Omar said the number of parolees who turned back to a life of crime was low.
Speaking to reporters after closing the ‘Festival Kesenian Jabatan Penjara 2017’ here yesterday, Zulkifli said that since the implementation of the parole system in 2008, they have recorded a total of 17,500 parolees and of the total, the number of repeat offenders is only 0.4 per cent.
“This is a good sign where we can see the involvement of family, community, employers and outsiders working together to ensure the system is successful,” he said, adding that before their release, parolees are exposed to life in the community so they do not have the opportunity to commit crime.
This shows that the system is effective and can be an example to other countries, he said.
He added that taking into consideration the effectiveness of the parole program, halfway house, compulsory attendance centre and community rehabilitation centres, more focus will be put into these programs.
“We will prioritize community based programs in the future and will work to develop these programs so that more low risk prisoners can participate in the rehabilitation in the community programs.
Our target by 2030 is 2.3 per cent of the low risk prisoners and this can reduce overcrowding in the prisons,” he said.
Meanwhile in the festival which is an annual event to select representatives of the Prisons Department to the MAKSAK Malaysia every year, Nazreen Nizam Razali from Selangor won the Men’s ‘Lagu Asli’ category while Rosnani Matmin from Sabah Prisons Department won in the women’s category.
In the ‘Lagu Moden’ category, Norinna Bahtarin from Sabah was judged the champion and Abd Fattah Abdullah from Sarawak took the top prize in the men’s category.
Sabah Prisons Department also took the top placing in the Traditional Dance category while Selangor Prisons Department beat their competitors to take the first place in the Band category.