SANDAKAN: The large number of foreign nationals convicted for immigration, criminal and drug offences have contributed to the congestion in the three Prisons in Sabah.
State Prisons Department director Senior Assistant Commissioner Suria Idris said 60 per cent of inmates in Prisons in Kota Kinabalu, Tawau and Sandakan were mainly Filipinos and Indonesians, while the rest were locals.
"The Henry Gurney School for juveniles in Keningau is also congested," he told reporters after witnessing the handing over of duties as Sandakan prison director by Faridun Md Saad to his successor Mat Johir Asin here yesterday.
Suria said the department had undertaken some approaches to tackle the problem, including increasing the number of cells at the Sandakan and Tawau Prisons.
"The problem would be overcome once the RM35 million prison in Labuan, known as Labuan Correctional Centre, starts operating end of this Year," he said.
He said the Labuan Prison, worth RM34.9 million, could accommodate 300 inmates.
Suria said new block of buildings were also built in Sandakan and Tawau to accommodate the increasing number of new prisoners.
Meanwhile, Suria commended the Sandakan Prison staff for their commitment after they won their third Best Prison Award for 2010.
Sandakan Prison also won the award in 2008 and 2009 apart from winnine the State-level Innovation competition.
The Borneo Post
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Page 3
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