About 20k offenders can be considered for house arrest - minister

About 20,000 offenders will likely qualify for consideration under the house arrest bill after a complete vetting process, said Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

He said the bill would consider first-time offenders who did not commit major crimes, pregnant women, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.

“The (estimated) number that will qualify for consideration is 20,000 offenders, who are first-time offenders.

“It also applies to offenders of minor crimes. For instance, a single mother who is poverty-stricken and resorts to stealing milk for her child and is sentenced to jail,” he said.

Saifuddin spoke after officiating the Kota Raja PKR branch’s annual general meeting in Klang, Selangor, today.

He stressed that there was no need to dredge up polemics about who qualifies for consideration as offenders will have to pass through several layers of vetting, including having a good discipline record while in prison.

The minister reportedly said yesterday that the house arrest bill will be tabled in Parliament next year and that the cabinet has approved the implementation of the bill in principle.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Budget 2025 speech on Friday included an announcement that the government would table a new act to let inmates carry out their prison sentences at home.

Serious prison congestion

Saifuddin also noted that the government previously implemented three initiatives - parole, compulsory attendance order, and licensed release - under the Prisons Regulations 2000 and found that the reoffending rate was low.

“Through these three methods, for every 700 offenders we release, only one reoffends.

“Recidivism was one (individual) only,” he said, adding that the proposal to draft the bill was done following serious congestion at 43 prisons throughout the country.

“The percentage of prison congestion has now exceeded 11 percent, meaning there are 82,000 inmates compared to the set capacity of 74,000.

“Therefore, we need to do something to overcome this as inmates are categorised into two - those convicted and those in remand,” Saifuddin said.

He also pointed out that similar laws have been implemented in dozens of countries including the United States, Germany, and Australia.

Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) executive committee member Dobby Chew previously questioned the implementation of the house arrest bill, alleging that it would benefit certain parties.

- Bernama

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