KUALA LUMPUR (June 23): The Malaysian government has tabled an amendment to the country’s prison law to include provisions on electronic monitoring devices.
The Prison (Amendment) Bill 2026 was tabled for first reading in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah.
According to the text of the bill published on the official Parliament portal, it comprises several changes, including a new section being added to the Prison Act which empowers the commissioner general to make an order that an electronic monitoring device be attached to any prisoner who is confined in prison, in the custody or under the control of a prison officer, released on licence or released on parole.
Under Section 43, "release on licence" refers to the commissioner general’s power, subject to the home minister’s regulations, to allow a prisoner to serve the remainder of their sentence outside prison under conditions as specified in the licence.
The electronic monitoring device provisions also include an offence for non-compliance in terms of tampering with, damaging, destroying or losing the device.
The use of electronic monitoring devices, commonly in the form of ankle monitors, is practised in other countries such as the US, the UK and other European nations as a direct alternative to prison sentences or for community supervision — parole or probation.
Other changes the amendment seeks to introduce are giving protection to prison officers who act under the instruction of the commissioner general from any action, suit, prosecution or other proceedings in court.
The issue of house arrest, or serving the remainder of a sentence at home, has been widely discussed over the past two years. The government proposed a house arrest law in Budget 2025, tabled in late-2024, mainly for non-serious offences.
In March 2025, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said Section 3 of the Prisons Act 1995 grants the minister of home affairs the authority to declare any home, building or place a “prison” for detaining inmates.
During this time jailed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed a “royal addendum” which purportedly said he could serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest.
The matter concluded in December 2025 with the High Court ruling that the supplementary order issued by the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong for him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest was not valid and could not be enforced.
In April this year, he withdrew his appeal against the High Court’s decision.
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