Government looking for empty factory buildings to house criminals
26/05/2007 The Star

IPOH: The Government is scouting for empty factory buildings in Penang, the Klang Valley and Johor to be converted into temporary prisons.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said the step was being taken as a quick solution to reduce overcrowding in the nation’s prisons.

He said that once identified, the factory buildings, to be rented for a certain number of years, would be renovated and reinforced with the necessary security features.

“This is our temporary way to reduce congestion in prisons until the long-term plan to build and upgrade all prisons is completed,” he told reporters after visiting the drug rehabilitation centre in Batu Gajah, about 20km from here, on Thursday.

Fu also assured those living in residential areas around the chosen factories of their safety.

“The factory buildings will be used to house only small-time criminals serving less than six months’ jail term.

“To date, they make up about 7,000 of the 42,000 inmates in the 28 prisons nationwide.

“It will be a great relief if we are able to relocate these criminals somewhere else,” he said, adding that hardcore criminals would still be placed at the existing prisons under tight security.

Other measures to reduce the congestion, Fu said, included the conversion of a rehabilitation home for girls in Batu Gajah and a block of the Kamunting detention camp in Taiping into prisons by year's end.

The buildings, he said, would be able to accommodate about 200 and 100 inmates respectively.