Baljit Sidhu said the committee should comprise members of NGOs and lawyers’ groups in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak, among others.
“The committee must meet interested parties, including ex-prisoners, to obtain valuable input before the necessary laws are amended,” he told FMT.
He noted that in 2004, the government had set up a committee under the leadership of then-minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad to look into amending the Penal and Criminal Procedure Code.
“The outcome was encouraging as the committee obtained the expertise and experience of others before changes in the law were tabled in Parliament,” he said, adding that a similar approach should be taken for prison reforms.
On Monday, Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the Prisons Department is preparing for reforms in every aspect of prison management.
This includes the areas of detention, rehabilitation, staff training, compliance with regulations, facilities, community correction, and inmate reintegration into society.
Baljit said managing prisons, juvenile and other correctional centres had become an uphill task thanks to overcrowding. He added that there are now more children, women and foreigners in Malaysian prisons.
“The challenges faced by the Prisons Department now are totally different from 50 years ago. The authorities then only needed to handle locals for rehabilitation,” he said.
Lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali agreed that overcrowding, along with a lack of proper medical care, are the main concerns in prisons.
“The influx of foreigners awaiting trial or serving their sentence does not help our prison authorities, either,” he added.
Rafique, who frequently meets with inmates to take instructions on their cases, said education in prisons should be looked into as well, whether living skills or secondary education.
He added that religious classes, which can be a catalyst for reform among prisoners, have not been given enough prominence either.
Urging the authorities to revisit the Prisons Act 1955 and its regulations, he said there are also incidents of abuse of power where force is used against prisoners to keep them in line.
“The home minister should spring a surprise visit to any of the prisons nationwide, just to see how conditions are,” he said.
Lawyer Salim Bashir said the government should work towards removing the negative public perception of prisoners and wardens.
“The authorities can learn from the experience of other countries and introduce changes at local jails for the betterment of the prison community,” he added.
He, too, said education whether formal or informal is necessary to make prisoners useful citizens who are accepted by society upon their release from jail.
He also suggested that the government implement a programme to allow foreigners to serve their jail terms in their home country, saying this would save a lot of taxpayers’ money.