A mere RM4.50 a day for meals
By RASHITHA A. HAMID and DHARMENDER SINGH
KUALA LUMPUR: A Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department was shocked to learn that only RM4.50 per day is allocated for food to each detainee in the lock-up.
T. Murugiah said this was ridiculous, especially with the increase in the price of rice, petrol and other items.
The RM4.50 covers breakfast (60 sen), lunch (RM2) and dinner (RM1.90).
Murugiah said the allocation should be raised so that detainees could get decent food.
“A normal human being living in the city spends at least RM10 on meals a day,” he said after visiting the Travers police station here yesterday.
He visited the police station following complaints by Seputeh MP Teresa Kok about the food she was served during her detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
“Detainees should be treated with respect and given proper food,” said Murugiah.
He said he would ask the Prime Minister and Home Minister to revise the amount allocated per detainee.
“It is high time we increase the amount as I believe that it has been some time since the Government revised it,” he said, adding that foreign and local detainees should be treated fairly.
Murugiah, who is also the Public Complaints Bureau head, said he had investigated the matter and would leave it to the higher authorities to remedy the situation.
Murugiah had earlier met Kok for about an hour in her office at the state secretariat building in Shah Alam.
The meeting was to discuss the type of food Kok was served during her week-long detention.
Kok pointed out that she was wrongly quoted about the food served. She said she was served food which was slightly better than dog food and not that she was served food that was like dog food as published in a Malay newspaper.
“I am happy to see the initiative taken by the Deputy Minister in looking into this matter and I hope that conditions will improve.”
(extracted from: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/23/nation/2093043&sec=nation)
Now read this:
Guantanamo Is a Model Prison (Really)
By MARK H. BUZBY
(extracted from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121253762342343273.html)
June 4, 2008
There is much talk in the media, in our capital and elsewhere about the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I have paid close attention to this dialogue, and after a year in command, it is clear that there are two Guantanamos: the one that exists in popular culture, and the one most discover when they actually see conditions there.
We house enemy combatants in one of several facilities according to their compliance with camp rules. Highly compliant detainees, approximately 20% of the population, live in Camp 4. Here they enjoy a communal, barracks-style environment, with movie nights, classes in Pashtu, Arabic and English, shared meals and prayers, and up to 12 hours of recreation per day.
Many of the enemy combatants, however, fail to comply with established rules. Offenses often include head-butting, kicking, biting and splashing young soldiers and sailors with feces and urine "cocktails."
These detainees are housed in Camps 5 and 6 – modern, climate-controlled facilities modeled after existing U.S. prison facilities in the Midwest. They get a minimum of two, soon to be three, hours of outdoor recreation per day adjacent to three to five other detainees. And they are held in a block of single-occupancy cells where they communicate with other detainees, guards, medical staff, library assistants and mail delivery personnel. Prayers are led five times a day by a detainee-appointed Imam. Each cell contains an arrow that points to Mecca.
All detainees receive three-meals per day, a 4,000-calorie diet selected from six different menus that meet the halal cultural dietary requirements, and which provide for special needs such as low sodium, vegetarian or diabetic. We provide comfort items including sheets and bedding, uniforms, shoes, prayer beads, prayer rugs, toiletries and bottled water. Each detainee is issued a Quran in Arabic and one in his native language. An ever-expanding, 5,000 volume library is available for a weekly choice of reading material.
Detainees sent and received more than 27,000 pieces of mail last year. In addition to humanitarian phone calls, which have long been permitted, we allow annual phone calls to family members. Last year, more than 1,200 attorney visits were conducted. Suggestions that detainees are being held "incommunicado" are simply not true.
Medical-care standards afforded to detainees are the same that my troopers receive. Access to treatment is 24/7, with a detainee-to-medical-staff ratio of three-to-one that far exceeds Federal Bureau of Prison standards, and is frankly better than what most Americans enjoy.
Joint Task Force doctors have performed more than 370 surgeries, including restorative eye procedures, and a recent back surgery that restored movement and avoided possible paralysis for a detainee. Shortly after, that detainee sent me a note saying "Thank you, I have been wrong about Americans."
Our mental health facility, staffed by a variety of mental health-care professionals, includes a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Approximately 15% of our detainees are seen for such issues on a regular basis, about half the average experienced in the U.S. prison population.
We enjoy a very positive relationship with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Its professionals have access to all detainees and facilities, and they provide us with useful and supportive confidential comments and suggestions – which have helped in furthering the development of our detention programs.
An important part of the Guantanamo story routinely underreported by many in the media – but readily apparent to most who visit – is the dedication and professionalism exhibited every single day by the more than 2,200 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians who provide for the safe and humane care and custody of very dangerous men.
Regardless of what international opinion says, my troopers perform their mission honorably, professionally and to a level that would make any American proud. I had the very great privilege of leading these sons and daughters of America; that is the Guantanamo I know.
Rear Adm. Buzby was commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo from May 2007 until last week.
and this:
Food war: £12 meals for prisoners while NHS patients get just £3 per head
(extracted from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-527842/Food-war--12-meals-prisoners-NHS-patients-just-3-head.html)
Last updated at 00:31 07 March 2008
Prisoners held in police cells are having up to four times as much spent on their food as hospital patients.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw admitted that forces are given as much as £12 a day to feed inmates, who often have a choice of food from local takeaways.
By comparison, just £3 is spent per head in hospitals a day, while 70p is spent on ingredients for a single school meal.
It costs an average of £385 to keep a prisoner in a police cell overnight.
In a letter to Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, Mr Straw said the £12 meal figure might even be exceeded in "exceptional cases".
Mr Rosindell said there would be anger among patients at the news that prisoners are better fed.
He said: "I think it's inexplicable that prisoners should be eating food which costs four times what a patient gets in the NHS."
"I want to know why only £3 per head is being spent on patients in hospital, where you would expect to have good quality food, and £12 is being spent on prison food.
"It's an astonishing revelation. I think every NHS patient will want to know why people who are up for committing a crime are being treated in a style which is inappropriate.
"It is an issue many people will find it hard to understand."
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said: "It costs as much to keep an offender in a police cell as an overnight stay at the Ritz."
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