| Malaysian Prison Department Jabatan Penjara Malaysia |
|
| Abbreviation | MPD / JPM |
| Logo of the Malaysian Prison Department | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1879 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| National agency (Operations jurisdiction) |
Malaysia |
| Size | 329, 847 km 127, 355 sq mi |
| Population | 27, 544, 000 |
| Legal jurisdiction | National |
| Governing body | Government of Malaysia |
| General nature |
|
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| Elected officer responsible | Hishamuddin Hussein, Minister of Home Affairs |
| Parent agency | Ministry of Home Affairs |
| Website | |
| http://www.prison.gov.my/ | |
The Malaysian Prison Department (Malay: Jabatan Penjara Malaysia) is a department controlled by the Malaysian Ministry of Internal Security responsible for jails where offenders sentenced by the courts are held. These jails also act as detention and recovery institutions.
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Symbolises the sincerity of the departments management system in generating commitment and co-operation among society at large, offender families and the department to ensure the success of rehabilitation programmes.
The Prison Department states that its vision, mission, objectives, and function are[2]:
Prison are different from other institutions or organisations found in a modern society. They are places where a group of trained personnel manages and looks after a group of people known as prisoners who are not there voluntarily and are instead forced inside and prevented from leaving by guards, walls and gates. A Prison Department cannot choose its clients and they have no power to release them. These prisoners have to live according to set of prescribed rules, and their movements are tightly controlled.
During the era of British rule and until the arrival of the Japanese in 1942, penal institutions were the responsibility of he individual states' governments with their respective regulations. In the Straits Settlements, a Superintendent based in Singapore, acted as the supervisor and inspected the institutions under his jurisdiction.
The Straits Settlements were the earliest to build their own prisons while the Federated Malay States did so only after the British set up a responsible department. The Taiping Prison, better known as the Taiping Gaol, the largest at the time, was built in 1879. Prisons were built with the main purpose of bringing suffering to the inmates in the hope that this would deter people from committing crimes.
In 1881, Sikh warders were brought in to assist Malay warders while vocational instructors from Hong Kong were used in an effort to introduce trades to the prisons. Among the earliest of these were rock breaking and carpentry. An attempt was made to categorise the inmates in 1882, then in 1889 European warders were appointed at some prisons.
With the formation of the Federated Malay States, Taiping Prison became a detention centre for long-term prisoners from Perak, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. In 1923, a visiting justice system was introduced and prison industries expanded to include printing work, weaving, sewing, rattan weaving, and metalwork. Rock-breaking work was abolished in 1924 and replaced with the pounding of coconut husks.
During the Japanese occupation (1941–1945), the Imperial Japanese Army also used the prisons for POWs. All records of the prisons and and its inmates for this period were subsequently destroyed by the Japanese.
After World War II, the Prison Office was established to administer all prisons in Malaya. The post-war era saw the return of peace, and modern administrative methods were introduced. The 1948 Malayan Emergency resulted in an increase in inmate numbers, which in turn caused overcrowding in the prisons. This disrupted the development of the prison system and it was only towards the end of 1949 when peace returned that prison development could be carried out smoothly.
The Prisons Ordinance 1952 and the Prisons Regulations 1953, based on the "modern treatment" concept, were introduced to replace old legislation. In 1953, the Criminal Justice Bill was passed, which abolished use of the cat-o'-nine-tails and replaced the term "penal servitude" with "prison".
Following Independence Day in 1957, the first Prisons Commissioner was appointed to take charge of the administration of all prisons in Malaya. In 1963, with the formation of Malaysia, prisons in Sabah and Sarawak came under the jurisdiction of the Prisons Department.
On 2 November 1995, the Prison Act 1995 was introduced to replace the former Prison Act which in turn was superseded on 1 September 2000 by the Prison Regulations 2000. The previous acts and regulations had been in use for a long time, thus changes and reforms were necessary to meet current needs and demands to streamline prison management and administration.
In an era of development and modernisation, the Malaysian Prison Department realises that it should not to be content with is past achievements, but should instead move forward and innovate in order to assist the prison administration in dealing with modern culture through criminology, penology and overall social control.[3]
UNGERIN operators are equipped with multi specialized weaponry and marine assault vehicles, including:-
| Standard Weapons | Origin | Versions | Quantity | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handgun/Revolver Types | ||||||
| Glock 17 | Austria | Standard | Not known | In used by prison senior officers as well as Trup Tindakan Cepat (TTC) special team. | ||
| Smith & Wesson .38 Special | United States | Standard | Classified | The S&W .38 service revolvers used by the low rank prisons peronnels. | ||
| Smith & Wesson M&P | United States | Standard | Not known | In used as service pistols of Prison Department | ||
| Shotgun Types | ||||||
| Remington 870 Shotgun | United States | 18.5mm breaching shotgun | Not known | Used as main service shotguns. | ||
| Submachinegun Types | ||||||
| Heckler & Koch MP5 | Germany | Various types | Unknown | Use by TTC and Prisons personnels | ||
| Assault rifle Types | ||||||
| Colt M16 | United States | M16A1, M16A4 | Unknown | In used by Prisons Department, TTC using the M16A4 with SOPMOD equipments | ||
| Sniper Types | ||||||
| Accuracy International Arctic Warfare | United Kingdom | Standard | Unknown | In used by TTC | ||
| Grenade launcher Types | ||||||
| CS Mk.IV | Malaysia | Standard | Unknown | TTC used | ||
| Machinegun Types | ||||||
| FN MAG | Belgium | Standard | Unknown | - | ||
| Non-lethal weapon Types | ||||||
| Taser X26 | United States | Standard | Unknown | - | ||