KLANG — About 20,000 offenders of certain categories will likely qualify for consideration under the new house arrest bill, after undergoing a complete vetting process, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said.
The bill will consider first offenders who did not commit major crimes, pregnant women, senior citizens and people with disabilities, he added.
“The (estimated) number that will qualify for consideration is 20,000 offenders, who are first offenders.
“It also applies to offenders of minor crimes, for instance a single mother who is poverty stricken and resorts to stealing milk for her child and is sentenced to jail,” he said after officiating the Kota Raja PKR branch annual general meeting here today.
Offenders will have to go through several layers of vetting, and must have a good discipline record while in prison.
Yesterday, Saifuddin Nasution said the new house arrest bill will be tabled in Parliament next year and that the Cabinet had approved the policy in principle.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when tabling Budget 2025 on Friday had also said the government would table a new Act to enable inmates to carry out their prison sentence for certain offences at home as an alternative.
Saifuddin Nasution today said the government has found the recidivism rate to be low after implementing three initiatives, namely, parole, compulsory attendance order and licensed release under the Prisons Regulations 2000.
“Through these three methods, for every 700 offenders we release, only one re-offends. Recidivism is one (individual) only,” he said.
Another rationale for the house arrest bill was serious congestion at 43 prisons throughout the country.
“The percentage of prison congestion has now exceeded 11%, meaning there are 82,000 inmates compared to the set capacity of 74,000.
“Therefore, we need to do something to overcome this as inmates are categorised into two, those convicted and those in remand,” Saifuddin said.
He also pointed out that similar laws have been implemented in dozens of countries including the United States, Germany and Australia. – October 20, 2024