JULY 15 — I refer to the statement by the Commissioner General of Prisons Datuk Seri Zulkifli Omar on 13 July 2016 in which he claimed that physical contact is not allowed between prisoners and families ‘ in order to rehabilitate inmates’.
This was in response to my demand on 11 July 2016 for the Home Minister to allow such contact visits.
Datuk Seri Zulkifli Omar has got it completely wrong. Contact visits are in fact crucial for the rehabilitation and re-integration of the prisoner in society.
Studies done all over the world have proven this; they show that contact with families reduce rates of re-offending ( recidivism) after release.
Datuk Seri Zulkifli also claimed that contact visits are allowed under certain conditions through the ‘Jalinan Kasih’ program.
This claim has no merit in it. The ‘Jalinan Kasih’ program selects only 50 prisoners out of a prison population of several thousand for contact visits. Further, the program is only held on special occasions such as during the recent Hari Raya celebrations.
Therefore, most of the prisoners will not benefit from such ad hoc and limited programs. Contact visits must be allowed as a matter of course during normal prison visits.
The Commissioner General and the Home Ministry have not been able to provide reasonable or acceptable grounds why contact visits should not be allowed in Malaysian prisons.
The Home Ministry and prisons department must not cling to antiquated and obsolete approaches to prisoner treatment. Prisoners and their families must be treated with sympathy and humanity, and with the ultimate goal of rehabilitation. Unreasonable and harsh practices such as denial of physical contact with families must be ended immediately.
* N. Surendran is the Member of Parliament for Padang Serai
** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
