CRP ensures only 4 in 1,000 released inmates return to crime life: Najib

PUTRAJAYA: Only four out of every 1,000 released inmates return to crime life after going through Community Rehabilitation Programme (CRP).
Disclosing this, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said this showed the effectiveness of the programme in which, petty criminals are separated from hardcore criminals when given rehabilitation.
"In the case of California for example, the rate of recidivism is more than 60% and that's huge.
"But in the case of Malaysia when we embark on CRP, we found out that the rate is only 0.44%, which means only four out of 1,000 released inmates return to the life of a criminal. And that is a huge turnaround," he said.
Najib was speaking at a special session of Leaders' Discussion at the International Conference on Blue Ocean Strategy here today.
"Through the Orthodox thinking, the more crimes occur, the more prisons you need.
"When you mix hardened criminals with petty criminals, what happens is that the petty criminals become hardened. And when they leave the prisons, they become hardened criminals," he said.
Earlier in his keynote address, Najib said the CRP is another initiative under the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) programme, a joint initiative between the Malaysian Armed Forces, Prison Department and the Agriculture and Agro-based Ministry.
"CRP works to rehabilitate petty criminals by training them to work on military premises, helping to reduce both recidivism and congestion in prisons.
"Inmates gain vocational and agricultural training, which will raise their income in the future, while support is also provided to the inmates after being released," he added.
Najib said this collaboration had helped reduce the operating costs for prison for petty criminals by 58%, as much of the camp maintenance is carried out by inmates.