DBKK offers daily work for former offenders
Published on: Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Parolees will now get a second shot at making it good in society through community work. A five-year cooperation between City Hall and the Prisons Department will allow those under the "Compulsory Attendance Order" to carry out community work around the city. The cooperation is the first documented effort received by the Prisons Department since the parole system was revived as an alternative correctional venue in 2010. ADVERTISEMENT Parolees will now get to be involved in "gotong-royong", volunteer work and others organised by City Hall. Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai on Monday said among the terms of cooperation include providing support in terms of technical, expertise, courses and intervention, transport, equipment and medical to the parolees who took up the programme. Yeo also indicated the prospects of employment at City Hall once they complete their sentence. "In our life we all make mistakes…Janganlah kerana satu kesilapan, maka masa depan dia tidak cerah lagi. ADVERTISEMENT (Don't because of a single mistake, deprive them of a bright future). We are also offering them the best platform to return to the mainstream community. "We also have opportunities and I would not mind that they are absorbed as part of the City Hall floating staff (part-timers)," said Yeo, adding that floating staff are given an allowance of RM44 on a daily rate basis.
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The move is also in view of City Hall's Anti-litterbug campaign where offenders now will have to answer to the court for such offences, Yeo said. Yeo said this after the signing of the memorandum of cooperation with the Prisons Department, here. Also present were Prisons Department Parole and Community Service Director Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Razak, State and Labuan Prisons Director Suria Idris and Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister's private secretary Ruslan Lalin. The signing was done by Yeo and Suria. Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz said the historic engagement is part of the Prisons Department's effort to rehabilitate inmates and reduce recidivists. "The introduction of the parole system will help reduce the Government's expenditure to maintain all the prisons in Malaysia, as well as allow inmates to continue their lives normally," he said. The Parole System was introduced in Malaya in 1954 and halted in Malaysia in 1972, but was revived in 2010 as part of the Prisons Department Transformation Programme. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Since its implementation in Sabah in 2012, the number of parolees has risen from three to 301 in 2017, making Sabah with the most number of those under the Compulsory Attendance Order than any other state. Those under the order are normally inmates who committed minor offences. - Jason Santos