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'Review prison staff salary, incentives'

by: V. Vasudevan, Eileen Ng, Joseph Sipalan, Irdiani Mohd Salleh and Ili Liyana Mokhtar

THE Home Affairs Ministry had requested the Public Service Department to review the salaries and incentives of prison staff.

Deputy Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said the last review was in 2005 and they had been paid under a new salary scale from July 1 last year with an increment of between RM165 and RM678.

"The ministry is proposing that a RM200 incentive be given to those in the Control and Preventive unit where they had to handle high-risk duties and also a higher incentive to those who have to deal with prisoners with serious diseases," he said in reply to questions by Nasharudin Mat Isa (PAS-Bachok).

Chor said his ministry was aware of the salary differences between prison staff and policemen and hoped that these incentives could bridge the difference.

He also said that overcrowding in prisons was also a problem. Chor said there were 37,446 prisoners in the country and 14,809 of them were foreigners.
"It is 28 per cent over the capacity limit and through parole and the building of new prisons, we can reduce the overcrowding situation."