Ministry mulls diversion programme for juvenile offenders – Rohani

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development is looking at implementing a diversion programme for juvenile offenders.

Its minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said the proposed programme is aimed at ensuring that these young offenders are given the chance to turn their lives around.

“Diversion refers to the intervention process for a juvenile who has conflicts with the law before he (or she) is prosecuted by the authorities,” she said in her speech at the Social Impairments townhall session here yesterday.

The text of her speech was read out by the ministry’s secretarygeneral, Datuk Suriani Ahmad.

Rohani said the ministry was working with the AttorneyGeneral’s Chambers and the Royal Malaysia Police to study the implementation of the programme.

In a separate development, she said the ministry had proposed that schools review their expulsion policy for problematic students so that they could have a better future.

She added that schools could replace expulsion with rehabilitation programmes.

“I am convinced that rehabilitation programmes will have a long-term impact while physical punishment is merely a short-term measure,” she said.

She added that young offenders should be given a second chance as they were still growing physically, mentally and emotionally. — Bernama