KUALA LUMPUR: The Prisons Department has taken several drastic measures to address the rising number of Covid-19 cases among inmates.
Its director-general Zulkifli Omar listed one such measure involved prisoners who were serving time under Section 15(1) of Dangerous Drugs Act that would be transferred to several National Service (NS) camps gazetted as temporary prisons.
These NS camps, he said, could accommodate between 2,300 and 2,800 inmates in total.
Another measure taken, Zulkifli said, was granting inmates release on licence (ROL) for minor offenders who were sentenced to one year of imprisonment, with less than three months left to serve .
"Based on the Prisons Department's records until Oct 5, there are 11,018 inmates who are sentenced to less than one year with less than three months left to serve that can be considered under ROL.
"All of those released under ROL must pass strict selection criteria and must first pass the Covid-19 screening carried out by the Health Ministry," he said in a statement today.
On this note, Zulkifli urged the public to remain calm since the spread of Covid-19 among prisoners took place in heavily guarded and confined areas under the strict supervision of the Health Ministry and the relevant enforcement agencies.
He said the Prisons Department had adopted the standard operating procedures (SOP) set by the Health Ministry to treat, isolate and prevent the spread of the pandemic in every aspect of staff's task assignments and the care of inmates nationwide.
"To further tighten the SOP in prisons, several other measures have been taken via the permanent order of the Commissioner-General of Prisons on top of arresting the Covid-19 infection rate among inmates and reducing the crowding in prisons," he said.
On the active Covid-19 cases logged by the Prisons Department until Oct 6, Zulkifli said the Tawau Prison had 77 cases involving inmates and 19 involving staff or their family members.
For the Alor Setar Prison, there were 938 cases among prisoners and 12 cases among staff or their family members; Pulau Pinang Prison has seven cases (inmates) and no case involving staff; Kamunting Correctional Centre has one case (inmate) and seven cases (staff/family members); Pokok Sena Prison has 63 cases (inmates) and one case (staff/family members) and the Kajang Women's Prison recorded one case among the inmates and no case involving staff or their family members.