MELAKA: The implementation of the Compulsory Attendance Order (CAO) for minor offenders, who are only sentenced to community work, has reduced the cost for offender management in the country.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop said since its commencement on September 2010 until June 3 this year, a total of 301 offenders were sentenced to the CAO and the government had been able to save almost RM1 million in offender management cost.
“The implementation of the CAO has also helped in reducing prison congestion. At present, there are only 38,280 inmates in 39 prisons nationwide,” he said after launching the CAO at Bukit Baru Welfare Home here yesterday.
The CAO, as stipulated under the Offenders Compulsory Attendance Act 1954, is a court order requiring an offender to attend daily at a centre to be specified in the order and to undertake compulsory work for a period not exceeding three months and not exceeding four hours daily.
Abu Seman said the centre where the offenders should carry out the community work could be an orphanage, an elderly home, a mosque and a temple.
“Offenders who are sentenced with the CAO will get a major impact in terms of moral rehabilitation that will deter them from repeating the offence,” he said.
As such, Abu Seman also called on the public to give moral support to the offenders who had completed the community work to live a better life. — Bernam