The prison department may resort to parole and community service to reduce over-crowding in correctional facilities nationwide.

This is among measures being proposed to cope with the increasing number of inmates, which has over-stretched capacity of prisons by an average of 25 percent.

Detention centres nationwide that are meant for 38,100 inmates are currently handling 47,000.

"The parole system needs the backing of the community. We are still in the stage of getting feedback," said department deputy director-general Zulkifli Omar after a roundtable discussion at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) today.

The department is further considering inter-state transfers that could see inmates being moved to prisons that are less crowded, he said.

The roundtable discussion was to identify and improve prison conditions in order to achieve minimum acceptable treatment of inmates from the human rights perspective.

Also participating were state prison directors and representatives of the Bar Council and human rights watchdog Suara Rakyat Malaysia.

The proposals were in response to Suhakam's findings from its inspection of 15 detention centres. There are 47 detention centres nationwide, including 28 dedicated prisons.

Said commissioner N Siva Subramaniam: "We are trying to reduce the number of inmates, so that they can be with the community. Parole will help reduce the traffic."

According to department figures, there was a steady increase in inmates from 27,785 in 2001 to 47,896 this year. Construction of new facilities has not been able to keep pace.

Although Simpang Renggam detention centre has gained notoriety for exceeding its capacity by 80 percent, it did not fare the worst.

Sandakan prison recorded the highest level of over-crowding at 202 percent above its gazetted capacity, followed by Tawau (155 percent) and Kota Kinabalu (106 percent).

Other problems

Other issues raised by commissioners involved the shortage of staff manning the prisons and inadequate medical service for inmates.

The commission also wants a review of the Emergency Ordinance which empowers the police to detain criminal suspects without trial.

"Sometimes suspects are detained longer than they would have served if found guilty for a certain crime. Many of their families (suffer loss of) income (during this period)," said Subramaniam.

Another problem is that there is a shortage of interpreters to deal with the 21,000 foreigners, who now make up a third of all inmates.

"What is disturbing is that ... one-fifth of foreigners are behind crimes - 99 percent of all murders were found to be committed by foreigners. This is alarming," he said, referring a report on crime compiled in March by the police.

Suhakam has been consistently calling for attention to the problems faced by prisoners, including alleged abuse of detainees at the Simpang Renggam centre.

A ministerial delegation was then put together to check the allegations , but claimed to have found no evidence during a visit in February.

The same month, the home ministry proposed new laws to monitor foreign workers in view of the rising crime rate.