KAJANG, Jan 3 — The government is set to change public perception of prisons in the country, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said.

He said it will be the ministry’s goal to shift the old mindset of prisons as a place of punishment to a place of correction.

"In the briefing earlier with the Prison Department, we agreed to place greater emphasis on changing the meaning of a prison, shifting it from a place of punishment to a place of correction.

"There are some programmes which have seen success; for example, the parole programme under Section 43 of the Prisons Act 1995, which we found has success stories whereby usually it is measured by recurring cases which showed a sharp decrease,” Saifuddin told reporters during a press conference at the Prison Department Headquarters here today.

He said the correctional methods could be implemented on some 18,500 inmates who are currently serving a jail sentence of less the three years.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin said the government is looking into expediting the process of filling prison staff vacancies.

In addition, the ministry has identified several old prison premises that need rejuvenation, some of which were built in the 1870s.

"Some of these prisons are still in use. We will work towards refurbishing these prisons,” he added.

Saifuddin said the government does not wish to build new prisons, and is looking at reducing the number of inmates instead.