Senate, Dewan Rakyat to set up joint committee to address overcrowding, COVID-19 in prisons

Dewan Negara president Tan Sri Dr Rais Yatim said the matter was decided at the Joint Committee Meeting to establish a caucus to tackle the issue of COVID-19 in prisons, held today.

“One of the problems is overcrowding in prisons and we find that our prisons can only receive about 46,000 inmates, but now the institutions have more than 62,000 inmates.

“We will meet with the (relevant) ministers soon to discuss this matter so that immediate and long-term measures can be implemented,” he told reporters after attending the meeting here.

Rais said a special briefing on the matter would also be held with the relevant ministers after the Dewan Rakyat sitting ends on Dec 17.

He said due to the overcrowding issue, it was necessary to look for measures that would ensure prisons in the country would not be congested.

Rais said Parliament has the responsibility to look at it in the interest of the people's wellbeing to help the government to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Malaysian prisons as a whole.