KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — The country is lacking halfway houses to accommodate paroled female prisoners and former female inmates who are looking for a job so that they can be reintegrated into society, Prison Department deputy director-general Datuk Ibrisam Abdul Rahman reportedly said.

He said that the department currently has 15 halfway houses that only accommodate male prisoners, The Star reported.

"The Prisons Department still needs halfway houses to be set up for prisoners who have no family or a place to live after being released or undergoing parole and the Licensed Release of Prisoners Programme (PBSL).

"We hope that we can work with more non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to set up the halfway houses and provide peer support to this group,” he was quoted as saying.

A halfway house is a facility provided by the Prisons Department in collaboration with NGOs to accommodate parolees (ODP) and ex-prisoners who have just been released after serving a prison sentence of up to three months.

With the facility’s existence, Ibrisam said it would enable the department to achieve its target of two-thirds of prison inmates undergoing community rehabilitation by 2030.

"The parole and PBSL programmes have helped 53,341 ODP and 9,602 inmates released on licence to find jobs and reintegrate into society since 2008,” he added.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) vice-chairman Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal said the responsibility to set up halfway houses should not be placed on the shoulders of the government alone, but NGOs too.