Nurul Izzah urges prison reform, says poor are disproportionately penalised

PARLIAMENT | The correlation between poverty and crime must be recognised and tackled in the 12th Malaysia Plan, PKR's Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar told Parliament today.

Citing a Universiti Malaya study entitled “Poverty and delinquency: A qualitative study on selected juvenile offenders in Malaysia”, she said that there was a clear relationship between the commission of offences by juveniles and a background of poverty.