KUALA LUMPUR: The Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Human Rights, Elections and Institutional Reforms has revealed that inmates at several prisons in the city are still using the bucket toilet system, which is almost a quarter of the way into the 21st century. The shocking discovery was part of the committee’s report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 28).
According to the committee, inmates at these outdated prisons are forced to share the same bucket, a situation that is alarming and inhumane.
Committee chairman William Leong highlighted that the “The Committee takes note that the bucket system (is still in use) at pre-war prisons. The Prisons Department has proposed changes to the prisons concerned. However, they cannot be renovated owing to the age of the structures. New ones can instead be built over the original site,” during a press conference in Parliament.
The six pre-war prisons still in use are the Penang Prison (173 years old), Taiping Prison (149 years), Seremban Prison (142 years), Batu Gajah Rehabilitation Centre (121 years), Muar Correctional Centre (96 years) and Pengkalan Chepa Prison (73 years), as reported by Leong.
He also mentioned that Penang Prison is overcrowded, currently housing 1,262 inmates despite having the capacity for only 1,100. Of this number, 65% were on remand while 35% are convicts serving out their sentences.
The committee has recommended that the practice of sharing buckets be stopped immediately and that each inmate be provided with a separate bucket. However, work to renovate the toilets at the prison is expected to take about three years to complete, as stated by Leong.
Leong disclosed that as of 2021, there were 99,000 inmates in prisons nationwide, with 10,000 connected to the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012, Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) 1959, and Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015.
He further emphasized that a significant factor contributing to overcrowding was the large number of incarcerated drug addicts, making up between 60,000 and 70,000 of the total prison population, and being categorized as “personal non-violent drug users.”
