KUALA LUMPUR, 25 Aug 2008: Malays make up the largest number of detainees and those undergoing jail sentences in several rehabilitation and detention centres under the Prisons Department.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said the total number of inmates in all institutions under the Prisons Department in the country was 39,961.
"There are four categories of rehabilitation and detention institutions under the management of the Prisons Department, namely the prisons, moral rehabilitation centres, protective detention centres and the Henry Gurney School.
"Out of the total number of inmates in all these institutions, 37,717 convicts are being detained or undergoing sentences in 29 prisons," he said, replying to Dr P Ramasamy (DAP-Batu Kawan) at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.
Chor said out of this number, 14,057 were Malays, 3,482 Chinese, 3,429 Indians, 1,742 other races, and 15,007 foreigners.
He said the Malays constituted the highest number of inmates at the moral rehabilitation institutions who were detained under the preventive laws of the Emergency Ordinance and the Dangerous Drugs Act Special Preventive Measures 1985 where 681 of the total of 1,763 inmates were Malays.
Indian inmates stood at 508, Chinese 344, other races 76, and 154 inmates were foreigners.
As for those detained under the Internal Security Act, 24 of the total of 68 detainees were Malays, seven Indians, four Chinese and 33 foreigners, he said.
He said that out of the total of 413 inmates at the Henry Gurney School, 262 were Malays, 11 Chinese, 38 Indians, 91 other races and 11 foreigners. – Bernama
