Law students at a Malaysian university will spend time in prison to get a taste of life behind bars, a report said today.

The two-day Behind Bars programme was being organised by the International Islamic University's law society, the Star newspaper said.

"Besides helping participants to empathise with convicts, Behind Bars will also equip them, especially future criminal lawyers, with essential first-hand knowledge about one branch of the administration of justice," programme manager Mohd Faridzul Nasaruddin said.

The students would be treated like prisoners waiting to be hanged or whipped, as well as those jailed for disciplinary problems, the report said.

Other roles

Some however would get to play the role of wardens and learn how to stop prison riots.

The 84 students aged between 20 and 24 would begin their incarceration next week at a defunct 122-year-old prison in Johore whose inmates had been moved to other facilities.

"This is the first time we are hosting university students," Rasid Jahil, a senior prisons department director, was quoted as saying.