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Kuala Lumpur: Chairman of the Alliance for Safe Community, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye (pic) supported the proposal of the Prisons Department that violators of the Movement Control Order (MCO) should not be jailed but be made to perform community service.

Sending violators of the Movement Control Order (MCO) to prison is tantamount to compounding one problem with another problem.

I agree with the appeal by the Prisons Department to the courts to refrain from sending those caught violating the MCO to prison for the time being. As of April 1, a total of 378 people are serving prison terms for MCO offences. The prisons are already overcrowded and any further influx of prisoners will exacerbate the problem and make social distancing in prison impossible.  In the event of a Covid 19 outbreak in Prison, it could spread uncontrollably, threatening the lives of prisoners and the overworked prison staff. Moreover it would not be practical to do social distancing in the prisons.

In  the USA the authorities are releasing thousands of inmates to try to slow the rate of Covid-19 infection, to save lives and to preserve medical resources.  Hundreds of Covid-19 diagnoses have been confirmed, leading to hunger strikes in detention centres throughout the country.

I feel we in Malaysia should not allow such a situation to develop here but it will be prudent and wise to take every and early precaution.

Instead of putting them behind bars, the violators should be sentenced to a period of community service. Such a measure is provided for under Malaysian law, and will serve the purpose of meeting immediate punishment, of instilling community consciousness, and will provide relief to the overcrowded prisons.  All these can be done without compromising one for another. It has been noted that the MCO compliance rate has improved tremendously following the second phase of its implementation. It appears, according to the police, compliance has almost, reached ninety-nine percent. This is a very positive development. Compliance is so essential to break the spread of infection from one person to another.