Prison Dept: Sending MCO Violators To Jail May Worsen The Covid-19 Outbreak
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Prisons Department director-general Zulkifli Omar has penned a letter addressed to the Federal Court chief registrar Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh asking the courts to stop jailing people for violating the Movement Control Order (MCO).
He said that this ruling is causing overcrowding in prisons where social distancing is “impossible”. Additionally, these MCO violators being sent to jail may have been unknowingly infected with Covid-19.
In such a situation, one accidental cough could mean an outbreak in the prison.
Covid-19 could spread uncontrollably and it could threaten the lives of the prisoners and prison staff.
Zulkifli Omar to Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh
Instead, Zulkifli recommended that the courts mete out community service punishments under the Offenders Compulsory Attendance Act 1954.
That way, MCO violators will be suitably punished, but the prisons will be able to maintain the current status quo.
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