House gazetted as prison must function as real jail

KUALA LUMPUR: A residence designated as a prison must be modified to resemble an actual prison and must not contain any equipment that could be considered a weapon or pose a risk of injury to inmates or prison personnel.

A house gazetted as a prison must function fully as a prison facility, including being occupied only by inmates and prison personnel, as well as having security fencing and scanning machines.

Lawyer Datuk Shamsuddin Nawawi said this was stipulated under the Prisons Act 1995, which provides that prisons are restricted and secured areas.

"All SOPs must be followed. For example, if former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's house does not have fencing that meets the required standards, it must be installed.

"Besides that, only the inmate can stay there, not other occupants. In Datuk Seri Najib's case, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor cannot stay in the same house.

"A prison is a place where inmates serve their sentences. If a house has been gazetted as a prison, only the inmate can be detained there," he told BH.

Najib has been granted house arrest for the remainder of his sentence on condition that he pays the RM50 million fine imposed over his conviction in the SRC International case.

Shamsuddin said the public needed to correct the perception that Najib would stay at home like others.

Any visitors would need to adhere to prison requirements, such as going through a scanning machine and having their visits recorded, he said.

"Prison is a security premises. So, any weapons or sharp objects that could cause harm are prohibited," he said.

He said any house could be gazetted as a prison under Section 3 of the Act, which states that the minister has the authority to gazette any residence or building as a prison.

Currently, Malaysia does not have procedures or methods for designating a house as a prison, Shamsuddin said.

"The regulations to turn a house into a prison could be created without needing to be tabled in Parliament; it is under the jurisdiction of the minister and the prisons director-general," he said.