NST Leader: Expunging criminal records

New Straits Times

25-05-2025

THE Prisons Department has a good idea. It wants to expunge ex-inmates' criminal records from the central database after five years.
This is to give former prisoners, once they are released, a chance to seek employment to rebuild their lives. For sure, the stigma of their criminal record will be a hurdle to start a new life.
Despite the department's numerous programmes with willing employers, ex-inmates find it hard to get jobs. The job market is more hostile to former prisoners. It cannot be denied that there are businesses that employ ex-inmates, but they are few.
Plus, they don't pay much. Yes, everyone must be given a second chance, but it must be done in such a manner that it doesn't end up as another money-making scheme for those who are put in charge of this.
To be fair to the Prisons Department, it didn't say anything about contracting out anything, but this caveat needs to be entered, as outsourcing by government agencies at times turns out to be just that. But we are getting ahead of the story.
First things first. Amendments need to be made to the Registration of Criminals and Undesirable Persons Act 1969 (Act 7), which the Prisons Department is drafting. As we understand from what Prisons Department director-general Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Razak told Utusan Malaysia, every year, more than 300,000 prisoners and remand detainees are released. That is a huge number.
Will the records of all of them be expunged after five years? Not quite. Only the ones who exhibit good behaviour based on assessments by the department. Meticulously done, we hope.
Why five years? In the view of Aziz, who has been in charge of prisoners for some time, five years is enough for inmates to change for the better. It is not exactly a best practice of prisons around the world, but five years has become a global indicator.
In the United States, where recidivism is said to be high, with 76 per cent ending up back in jail, five years is thought to be not good for all prisoners. We are not sure if our Prisons Department has done such a study, but five years may work for some, and not for others.
Again, meticulous assessment is the key. Another is to deepen investments in inmates' education so that they can walk out of the prison with provable skills. Not that the department isn't investing in the education of its inmates, but more needs to be done.
The skills must be useful to the job market, meaning what is taught must match what the employers want. Even our universities are not doing a good job of this.
No one wants a formerly incarcerated person to return to the overcrowded prisons, least of all the Prisons Department. Relapse among ex-inmates means a bigger budget to house and feed them, which it can ill afford.
So, too, the ex-inmates because losing the second chance means that there won't be a third. Employers must help them make a fresh start.