PETALING JAYA: An NGO has urged the Prisons Department to hand over inmates about to be freed to the health authorities to be quarantined for Covid-19 before they were allowed to return home.
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Eliminating Deaths and Abuse in Custody Together (EDICT) chairman M Visvanathan said no prisoner could remain in jail to be screened and cleared for the deadly virus.
“Once the warrant of committal issued by the court expires, no prisoner can remain under prison custody for any purpose.
“A freed prisoner can no longer be subjected to regimented prison rules and regulations,” Visvanathan told FMT.
He said they should instead be handed over to the health ministry officials to be quarantined.
“They are entitled to be treated like normal citizens,” he said, adding that they could communicate with their friends and relatives or even order food and drinks elsewhere if they had the financial means.
Visvanathan said this in response to the case of 14 Penang prisoners, about to be released within a month, who were confirmed as being infected with Covid-19 two days ago.
Jawi prison director Zulkifli Abdul Manah said the prisoners at Seberang Perai prison were confirmed positive after undergoing a second Covid-19 screening test.
He said it was now a prison procedure that prisoners waiting to be released have to undergo a screening test to ensure they are free of the virus so that it does not spread when they are released.
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Zulkifli said that currently, those who were positive were placed with other inmates who were also confirmed positive and would only be released after they were fully recovered.
Visvanathan said he doubted prisoners could be treated effectively as Malaysian jails were overcrowded.
Deputy Home Minister II Jonathan Yasin told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday a total of 1,156 prisoners and 83 prison staff and family members had tested positive for Covid-19 nationwide as of Monday.
Jonathan said the number of prisoners nationwide (66,791) as of Oct 19 was 43.88% more than the actual capacity of the jails, which can only accommodate 46,420 prisoners.
He said the Prisons Department had strengthened its SOPs in collaboration with the health ministry.
Health experts have said that crowded cells would make ideal breeding grounds for Covid-19 infection, as physical distancing was almost impossible to be practised.
Meanwhile, lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali said the prisons director-general must ensure that those infected must be isolated within the clinic wing and be allowed full amenities, unlike other prisoners.
“They must be allowed to call their families, perhaps interact online, and be given reading materials,” he said.
He said the respective embassies must be roped in to provide for foreign nationals, and not at the expense of taxpayers. – FMT