Crimes involving ex-convicts in Malaysia lowest in Asean — DPM

MELAKA: The rate of repeated crimes among released convicts in the country at 7.6 percent, is the lowest in the Asean region, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the low rate of repeated crimes was the outcome of the country’s approach that prison was not not just a place where convicts served their sentences but also due to rehabilitation efforts being carried out for the prisoners.

“Prisons are not for punishment, but rather for rehabilitation of prisoners, The method is to include elements that when they (prisoners) are released from prison, repeated crimes do not occur.

“So that they can be rehabilitated. When they are out of prison, they can be accepted by their family. Many convicts (after released from prison) become songket and batik entrepreneurs and selling bread,” he said here yesterday.

He said this when officiating the Melaka Volunteer Patrol Scheme and meeting with the Rukun Tetangga Zone members at the Melaka Police Contingent headquarters here yesterday. Also present were Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron and Melaka Police chief Datuk Abdul Jalil Hassan.

Ahmad Zahid, who is Home Minister, said only 0.4 percent of the prisoners released on parole repeated their crimes.

He said the decline proved the effectiveness of the parole system implemented by the Malaysian Prisons Department, that included isolating convicts involved in serious crimes from those serving a jail sentence of six months.

“Cooperation among the community, family, employers and others also played a role in reducing the percentage of convicts on parole who repeated their crimes besides the effectiveness of the rehabilitation programme implemented,” he said.

He said apart from effective rehabilitation, the parole system had also helped reduce the operation costs of prisons and congestion in the prisons in the country.

Meanwhile Ahmad Zahid said volunteer bodies should work together to ensure that the environment of their neighbourhood watch in their housing areas or villages were more conductive and safe for the people.

Hence, he said KRT and SRS members should play a more active role as strategic partners to the police force to reduce crime activities.

“Crime is difficult to totally eradicate, but early measures being taken previously have showed the crime index rate declined by 53 percent in 2017 compared by 47 percent in 2016,” he said.

At the event, he also announced an additional allocation of RM100,000 to Melaka SRS members to implement various communities programmes in their respective areas besides encouraging and motivating the community to remain safe and prosperous. - Bernama