JUVENILE delinquents have every opportunity to continue with their education, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said yesterday.

The government held the view that rehabilitation was part of the punitive process, he added.

"This is why we have various facilities in jail, including what we call integration schools which are found in six prisons," he said in reply to a question by Senator Datuk Saripah Aminah.

"Between 2004 and 2007 some youths studying in these schools took the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations and 10 of them passed".

Wan Ahmad Farid said some of the young inmates had enrolled for online diploma programmes.
"This shows that our effort to help juveniles with their education has produced results."

The ministry's rehabilitation programme for young offenders goes through three phases.

The first is to build discipline, which runs for three months. The second phase is to build self-esteem, which runs from six months to a year and the third is to prepare them to face the community once they are released.

Wan Ahmad Farid said Prison Department statistics showed that 127 juvenile delinquents were under the age of 18 as of July 1.

"Of the total, 93 are in remand or awaiting trial," he said.

To a question from Datuk Wira Syed Ali Syed Abbas Alhabshee, he said the government had no intention of penalising the parents or guardians for the wrong done by their children.

"These juvenile offenders are from broken families or have family problems and this is the factor that draws them to crime.

"The government's focus is to rehabilitate them. It is not to punish parents or guardians," he said.