Products under My Pride brand are made by the prisoners according to specified standards.
IT’S often not easy for reporters to get an appointment to interview prison officers and prisoners.
But a few months ago, a fellow reporter and I had the opportunity to step into Miri Central Prison in Lambir to meet and talk to the staff about their work and the inmates about life behind bars.
Our visit was aimed at raising public awareness of the role of the Prisons Department and the need for the community at large to recognise that the concept of imprisonment is not merely to punish but also promote rehabilitation and socialisation.
The community plays an important role in this respect to reduce recidivism and help reformed prisoners back to society.
Inmates take part in a Malaysia Day celebration.
According to Miri Central Prison director Mohd Yunos Salleh, rehabilitation at the Malaysian Prisons Department is carried out through the Human Development Programme (PPI), divided into four main phases – Orientation, Personality Building, Skills, and Community.
Orientation involves restoring physical and mental health, building and forming discipline, adapting to life in prison, and channelling information related to the prison.
In Personality Building, character is formed and strengthened through behavioural modifications and addition of worldly and spiritual knowledge.
The Skills and Community phases aim to produce prisoners who can apply the recovery knowledge acquired during Orientation, especially the strengthening of characteristics, so that it becomes a practice for the inmates before they are released.
Inmates attend a class in prison.
“There is also Reintegration – a phase for the prisoners to reorganise their lives outside prison after being separated from the community,” Mohd Yunos explained.
All prisoners, regardless of their offence, are taught useful life skills for survival in prison and after release. Skills training includes sewing, songket weaving, batik painting, and making of furniture, pastries, and handicrafts.
“The products are of high quality as the inmates receive guidance from highly-skilled prison officers,” he said.
Since 2008, the Prisons Department has been marketing products and services from Miri Central Prison under the brand My Pride.
Inmates attend
Al-Quran class in prison.
Legal procedure
The management of prison detention is a legal procedure that must be exercised to ensure lawful detention.
The process of detention in prison starts with an individual ordered by the court to be held until release while the process of receiving a prisoner commences with a lawful warrant of imprisonment from the court.
The warrant will be scrutinised and reviewed by the prison officers to ensure the details tally with the identification of the prisoners brought in by the authorities.
The prisoners will then be examined to ensure they are in satisfactory physical condition otherwise they will be referred to the medical officer.
The receiving officer will register and record the incarceration in the check book and the Penalty Management Information System (SMPP).
All of the prisoners’ properties will be recorded and stored in a box, which will be returned once the prisoners are freed.
Registered prisoners will be given prison clothing before being taken to the placement block.
The beautifully landscaped garden built by the prisoners.
According to Mohd Yunos, only 2 per cent of Miri Central Prison inmates have contracted illnesses such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, HIV, high blood pressure, and diabetes. All are closely monitored and given proper healthcare.
The check-up before incarceration is crucial and all prisoners are required to get a thorough physical exam to ensure they start serving their sentence in good health.
The prisoners’ health reports are kept in their personal files and stored in SMPP. The medical officer will conduct a physical exam to ascertain whether or not the prisoners can do the jobs assigned to them.
If any injuries and disabilities are found, the medical officer will examine the cause(s) to facilitate dispensation of medication and room separation purposes (for infectious diseases).
Inmates conduct a presentation for their class.
Maintaining family ties
Visits and meetings under prison guards’ supervision, are permitted for the inmates to maintain family ties.
These last 35 to 45 minutes each time and are subject to the ranking of the Progressive Stage System.
According to Mohd Yunos, there are five levels. The first and second can receive one visit every four weeks; the third – one visit every three weeks; and the fourth – one visit every two weeks. The fifth is a special level where inmates receive one visit per week.
The average number of inmates in Miri Central Prison is 500.
Presently, there are 470 prisoners – 424 males and 46 females, aged between 30 and 40 years.
Prisons in Malaysia are categorised under Maximum, Medium, and Minimum Prisons, and Miri Central Prison is a Minimum Prison.
The room where prisoners communicate with their families by intercom.
He said prison officers face the challenge of working behind walls with no connection to the outside world, adding that they also risked exposure to disease outbreaks.
“Apart from facing prisoners with criminal records like high risk inmates or death row convicts who require different skills to connect and control, the officers also have to attend to inmates suffering from diseases and sicknesses.
“Prison personnel have to deal with such situations. They share a common task – helping criminals to become good citizens again and sick inmates to regain their health.”
Community help
The community can help the Prisons Department through its rehabilitation programme by volunteering as religious speakers or academic instructors to help the prisoners turn their lives around.
Donations in cash and kind or even reading materials on education and for entertainment are welcomed except those with obscene and negative content.
As a reciprocal gesture, the Prisons Department can help the community by arranging for its counsellors to give talks in schools or to youth associations.
A prison workforce is also provided to carry out communal work such as cleaning public places, playgrounds, and nursing homes together with the local community following approval from the Security Division of the Prisons Department Headquarters.
Through such a service, the prisoners can connect with the community, thereby giving rise to a sense of penitence as well as pride in being able to contribute to society.
It’s the community that must embrace this challenge to help the prisoners change for the better.
Vegetables, planted by the prisoners, are sold to earn the inmates some income.
Prison not only teaches the inmates to repent and appreciate what life has to offer but also lets them know there is second chance for them if they want it.
“We need to help them and get rid of the stigma that ex-prisoners cannot change for the better. That’s unfair because like any one of us, they are human and human beings are not perfect but many can begin a new life if given the chance,” Mohd Yunos stressed.
What a prisoner goes through can happen to a family member or a friend. As Ronald Reagan once said, “We can’t help everyone but everyone can help someone.”