Repeated crimes involving released convicts in Malaysia lowest in Asean: DPM (Updated)

MALACCA: The rate of repeated crimes among released convicts in the country at 7.6%, is the lowest in the Asean region, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He said the low rate of repeated crimes was the outcome of the country's approach that prison was not not just a place where convicts served their sentences but also due to rehabilitation efforts being carried out for the prisoners.
"Prisons are not for punishment, but rather for rehabilitation of prisoners. The method is to include elements that when they (prisoners) are released from prison, repeated crimes do not occur.
"So that they can be rehabilitated. When they are out of prison, they can be accepted by their family. Many convicts (after being released from prison) become songket and batik entrepreneurs and sell bread," he said here today.
He said this when officiating the Malacca Volunteer Patrol Scheme and meeting with the Rukun Tetangga Zone members at the Malacca Police Contingent headquarters here today. Also present were Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron and Malacca Police chief Datuk Abdul Jalil Hassan.
Ahmad Zahid, who is also Home Minister, said that only 0.4% of the prisoners released on parole repeated their crimes.
He said the decline proved the effectiveness of the parole system implemented by the Malaysian Prisons Department, including isolating convicts involved in serious crimes from those serving a jail term of six months or less.
"Cooperation among the community, family, employers and others also played a role in reducing the percentage of convicts on parole who repeated their crimes besides the effectiveness of the rehabilitation programme implemented," he said.
He said apart from effective rehabilitation, the parole system had also helped reduce the operation costs of prisons as well as congestion in the prisons nationwide.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said volunteer bodies should work together to ensure that the environment under the supervision of their neighbourhood watch in their housing areas or villages were more conductive and safe for the people.
Hence, he said KRT and SRS members should play a more active role as strategic partners to the police force to reduce criminal activity.
"Crime is difficult to totally eradicate, but early measures being taken previously have showed the crime index rate declined by 53% in 2017 compared by 47% in 2016," he said.
At the event, he also announced an additional allocation of RM100,000 to Melaka SRS members to implement various community programmes in their respective areas, besides encouraging and motivating the community to remain safe and prosperous. — Bernama