MARCH 7 — About a year ago, I had already written that a house can be a prison.
So, I’m not surprised by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman’s statement in Parliament on Thursday (March 6) that Section 3 of the Prisons Act 1995 empowers the home minister to designate any premises, including a residential property, as a prison.
“This section empowers the minister overseeing prison matters, in this case the home minister, to designate any residence, buildings or premise as a prison for the purpose of detaining someone who was sentenced to incarceration,” she said.
“In other words, the minister has the power to designate a home as a valid premise to incarcerate a prisoner subject to all the related provisions of the Prisons Act 1995,” she added.
But it must be said that the home or house will be a prison for purposes of the Prisons Act 1995.
Imagine the house next to your house is a prison.
This is different from a house arrest or home detention under a law that provides specifically for it.
Imagine the house next to your house is a prison. — Pixabay pic
In Singapore, for example, where the Prisons Act 1993 provides for a home detention scheme (HDS), a home detention means, in relation to a prisoner, the serving by the prisoner of the prisoner’s sentence of imprisonment in the place or places, outside the limits of any prison, specified in the home detention order (HDO) for the purpose of facilitating a prisoner’s rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
If the place specified in the HDO is a house or home or residence, the place remains as such without it being declared as a prison. The house or home or residence now serves an additional purpose — that is, to facilitate the prisoner’s rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
Take the example of Singapore’s former transport minister S. Iswaran who has reportedly been placed on home detention as part of his 12-month jail term.
Under the HDS, Iswaran is now serving the remainder of his sentence at his residence under specified conditions, including curfew monitoring via an electronic tag and regular reporting to the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) for counselling.
His residence or house or home remains as such without it being declared a prison.
Imagine if his residence is declared a prison and your residence is next to his.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
