KOTA KINABALU: Realising the effectiveness of halfway houses for prisoners upon their release, the first of such ‘home’ in Sabah was declared open yesterday.
Located at Lorong Bunga Patuma in Kepayan near here, the Sabah Prisons Department Halfway House provides shelter and food to newly released convicts who are rejected by their families, or those who have no one to turn to.
Initiated to help lower the crime rate, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop also explained that the halfway house also served as a treatment facility to help convicts overcome the social stigma through counseling services.
Apart from providing them accommodation and other facilities, the halfway house gives the newly released prisoners a safe environment to adjust to the local community.
“From a psychological viewpoint, former convicts often felt marginalised and the safe houses prevented them from returning to the arms of the old bad company,” he said.
Abu Seman added that before identifying a halfway house, prison officers had to conduct an inspection on the place and brief the community of the programme to avoid untoward incidents.
“So far there has been no opposition from the local community on the location of halfway houses,” he said.
He also said the programme of relocating prisoners to halfway houses upon their release has been found to be effective when only 10 per cent of its participants returned to their ‘bad habits’.
“Ninety per cent of the participants led a good life, succeeded in securing jobs and posed no problems to their employers. Therefore the objective of stopping their criminal habit is achieved and our monitoring shows all of them are clean,” he told reporters after launching the halfway house here, yesterday.
Also present were Prisons Department’s director-general Datuk Seri Zulkifli Omar, Sabah Prisons Department director SAC Suria Idris, and Putatan assemblyman Datuk Marcus Mojigoh.
He added that by mid this year, Sabah Prisons Department would be working closely with Paradise Army Camp in Kota Belud to enable ex-convicts to secure general worker jobs there. Another five of such collaborations will be set up by their counterparts at army camps in Peninsular Malaysia.
Since the programme was implemented in May 2010, a total of 14 halfway houses have been set up.
“Our mission is to have at least one in every state,” he said.
As of Jan 21 this year, a total of 541 participants have benefited from the halfway houses.
Only one convict is currently staying at the halfway house here, as three of his former ‘housemates’ have been released after securing employment.
The house could take up a maximum of 15 people at any one time.
Meanwhile, Zulkifli said the Prisons Department continues to explore into various rehabilitation programmes to provide a second chance in life for the ex-convicts.
“Former prisoners will always have to deal with situation after their release. Some are rejected by family members and can not secure employment due to social stigma. These will only demoralise the convicts.
“Therefore, community support and trust are vital to give them a second chance in life and prove that they have changed for good,” he said.
He added that today, there is more to prisons than just an institution to teach prisoners a lesson due to their past mistakes.
“We no longer look at prisons as just a place for the prisoners to serve their sentence; it is a correctional institution where inmates are also provided with counseling,” he said.
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