SERVING AN IMPRISONMENT SENTENCE OUTSIDE PRISON THROUGH A PAROLE ORDER

Abstract

Lately there has been much discussion on the issue of a ‘house arrest’ and whether the law in Malaysia permits for a ‘house arrest as there is no specific reference to the term ‘house arrest’ in any of the laws in Malaysia. It would appear that there may be some difficulty in recognising the correlation between a declaration made by the Minister in charge with the responsibility of prisons of a ‘house’ as a prison under  section 3 of the Prison Act 1995, and an order to serve out remainder of imprisonment sentence outside of prison made by the Parole Board under  section 46C(1) of the same Act. It is important to appreciate the difference between the laws pertaining to serving imprisonment sentence inside prison and the laws pertaining to serving imprisonment sentence outside prison. This article discusses the nature of parole, which cannot be equated with a ‘house arrest’, noting the crucial point that serving imprisonment at any place gazetted as a prison is not parole which contemplates serving imprisonment sentence outside prison.