Ministry of Home Affairs is planning to start implementing the parole system being exercised in other countries as the number of inmates received by the jails and prisons is 16 per cent higher than that they can house, said Major General Aung Thu, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, yesterday.

The deputy minister replied to the question raised by Lower House MP Dr. Khin Maung Maung from Dagon Myothit (North) Constituency, at the session of lower house parliament on June 3, on the ministry has a plan to practice the parole system.

According to the figures till 29 May, this year, there are 85,795 inmates in the jails across the country. It is required to reduce the number of inmates as the jails and prisons have to receive an additional 11,642 inmates or 16 per cent more. Currently, Myanmar don’t exercise this parole system. In a bid to solve the inmate population density in the long term, the ministry will start exercising it, he added.

There are 42 jails, five prisons, 18 prison camps and 30 agricultural, livestock and vocational training camps under the Prison Department at the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to the set-up, they can hold 71,000 inmates. The dormitories can hold 74,153 inmates when 18 square feet for an inmate is calculated.

Myanmar National Human Rights Commission submitted the paper to solve the increased number of inmates in the prisons while the Ministry of Home Affairs reported the similar issue to the President Office.

The President Office has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to form the Scrutinizing Committee for the reduction of inmates, in coordination with relevant ministries and organizations and to form the work committee in regions and states, if  necessary.

The ministry has started drafting the bill for monitoring the released inmates under the parole system. After the enactment of this law, the ministry will implement it in accordance with the law, he continued.