Charging Mahathir People & Power examines the story behind Elusive AbdulGani Patail

 Why? Was the evidence held by DSP Jude tampered or not? An experienced and senior police officer would know better than to cut the plastic bag containing the evidence and by so doing creating doubt. Maybe that is his way of helping the defence because deep in his heart he knows the sodomy did not take place.Some one just said few days ago that our courts and judges is independent. Just hope it is the fact and truth, nothing but the truth.It's hard to expect justice or fairness to prevail, when the Attorney-General is heavily tainted and the independence of at least part of the judiciary is seriously suspect. Anyway, the die is cast. One has to wait and see what the result will be. In the meantime, might one ask if Saiful has won a scholarship for which he sought Najib's advice? and if he has, what is he reading now?
This appeal is a Najib and Umno sandiwara designed purely to harass and keep Anwar busy with the trumped up sodomy case so that he and his PR lawyers cannot devote more of their time to campaign for the forthcoming elections Reminds me of the tv series "Peyton Place' which went on and on for more than 500 episodes. Will this charade never come an end? You are giving that old man something to be cheerful about..s the stupidity of the prosecution one of the nine grounds? Nine grounds? Ground ZERO is more like it. The judgement of the kangaroo judge was most probably written by Najib’s lackeys in the judiciary so that his kangaroo judges in the appellate court can return a verdict of guilty or not guilty depending on Najib’s instructions at that time. Najib’s decision would depend on various considerations such as the international reaction and the reaction of the electorate. Najib must be fully aware that Mahathir lost a significant amount of the Malay vote as a result of Sodomy 1 and if this time he jails Anwar again, it would mean that he is quite confident that all his new phantom voters and his new illegal instant citizens from the neighbouring countries will more than offset any loss of support from the digusted and angry Malaysians. With all these idiotic buffonery in our courts does that mean that all members of our justice system are made up of a bunch of incompetant dufuses? Just because the govt is made up of decaying leeches why should people in our justice system suffer the same degradation? Have a spine of your own lah for goodness sake. Nama saja Muslim tapi lagak macam Setan. Laughing stock of the whole world "AG of Malaysia".Bring shame not only to malaysia but also your family.As long can convict Anwar, anything goes!Remember this "Man Propose God oppose"what stupid AG of 1Funny Malaysia. If the judge procced with the appeal, than the judiciary is seen to be biased and for sure our courts are kangaroo courts filled with kangaroo judges.
 Lower court, middle court, high court or supreme court decision should be the same if the judge and other involved did their job without bias, so now why bother to appeal if Dato' Anwar is proven not guilty? The prosecution team is appealing against the decision means they are trying to say, the previous court and the judge made a wrong decision and they do not know law or they do not know how to make decision??? If so why keep them and the court? Apa lagi Drama Minggu Ini, tak habis habis anwar anwar anwar. Buta kah ... what the f happen to Alatantuya case. Wake up lah doink. BN you guys are like prostitutes

Najib had Rosmah by his side Indeed, First Lady Rosmah Mansor has been a thorn in Mahathir’s flesh!

COMMENT In Chapter 53, ‘Anwar’s Challenge’, on page 695 of the book, ‘A Doctor in the House, The Memoirs of Tun DrMahathir‘, Mahathir wrote, “Though some witnesses were hostile towards me, nobody came forward to say that I had forced him to tell lies to support me.

“One of these hostile witnesses was the former director-generalof the Anti-Corruption Agency, Datuk Shafee Yahaya (right), who had earlier accused me of interfering with an ACA investigation into then DG of the EPU, Tan Sri Ali Abul Hassan.

“In 1998, I had received a complaint that the ACA had been offensive during his investigation and so, knowing how government officers could sometimes be overzealous in their duties, I asked Shafee to explain the situation. Our meeting did not go well and Shafee became angry, accusing me of interfering with his duties.

“Actually the affair with the ACA had nothing to do with Anwar’s case. But Shafee had his day in court and seemed to be happy to vilify me.”

After reading the above, I had two choices to make – just shrug it off and keep quiet or present our side of the story. Guided by what Allah SWT had said in Surah Al-Baqarah 2: 42, “And mix not truth with falsehood, nor conceal the truth while you know the truth,” I have decided to respond to Mahathir’s allegations for the sake of my children, grandchildren and future generations to come.

The incident referred to by Mahathir happened in June 1998, three months before the expiry of Shafee’s contract as director-general of the Anti-Corruption Agency. An aggrieved party had made a complaint against the then director-general, Economic Planning Unit in mid-May 1998 over a privatisation project.

Mahathir ‘kept quiet’

After taking the complainant’s statement and studying the case, the ACA needed to take the relevant files pertaining to this project from the EPU office. As it involved a very senior officer, following past practices, Shafee informed the prime minister of the case at the end of May 1998, but the latter “kept quiet”.

Although it seemed safe enough for Shafee to interpret Mahathir’s silence to mean “no objection”, Shafee decided to inform Anwar Ibrahim, then deputy prime minister and finance minister, of the ACA’s intention to raid the EPU office.

Anwar asked him whether he had cleared it with the prime minister. Shafee mentioned that he had and that the prime minister had kept quiet. Anwar left it for Shafee to decide. Shafee also informed the then chief secretary to the government (Abdul Halim Ali).

The ACA subsequently raided the EPU office on June 16, 1998 to find the files concerning the privatisation project. In the course of searching for evidence, one of the ACA officers found a large sum of money in a drawer belonging to the then DG.

In his letter to me dated Oct 8, 2010, Mat Zain Ibrahim, former Kuala LumpurCriminal Investigation Department chief, disclosed that the amount found was RM100,000. The EPU DG gave an explanation but the ACA wanted more evidence and verification.

The public was not aware of the raid on EPU at that time, as it was not reported in the newspapers. There had been rumours and whispers, but no confirmation that there had been an investigation of the former EPU DG. The public only knew what really happened in June 2000 after the court case.

Shafee had been subpoenaed to appear in court as a witness in Anwar’s sodomy trial on June12, 2000. Shafee had to take an oath to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. He was also guided by Surah Al Baqarah 2:283, in which Allah says, “…And conceal not the evidence for he, who hides it, surely his heart is sinful. And Allah is All-Knower of what you do.”

What took place between Shafee and Mahathir in June 1998 was revealed in court during Anwar’s sodomy trial, and the court transcripts dated June 12, 2000 is in Appendix 1 of my book on Shafee’s biography.

Based on Shafee’s sworn testimony in court, Shafee said that after the raid of the EPU’s office, Mahathir called Shafee to his office. Shafee said he was told off by the premier.

“How dare you raid my senior’s officer’s office?”

Shafee replied that “it was based on an official complaint by an aggrieved party”.

“I did what was officially required under the law.”

‘Called to see Mahathir twice’

Mahathir also accused Shafee of trying “to fix the EPU DG” and questioned whether Anwar Ibrahim had asked him to raid the EPU office. In the court testimony, Shafee replied, “That is totally wrong because it is wrong in law to fix anybody. As a Muslim, it is a big sin to fix anybody.”

Shafee also said that Anwar did not ask him to raid the office. Shafee was called to see Mahathir twice after the first “scolding” over the EPU DG’s case. This was not revealed in court because justice Arifin Jaka disallowed further testimony on the matter.

For Mahathir to write that Shafee was a “hostile witness“, that he “became angry, accusing me of interfering with his duties” and that “Shafee had his day in court and seemed to be happy to vilify me” is most unfair.

One has to bear in mind that Shafee was subpoenaed to appear in court and he took an oath in court to tell the truth before answering the questions. If you were caught lying, you could be charged with perjury. We believe that if you start with one lie, you may end up telling more lies to cover that lie you started with.

Mahathir had every opportunity to refute Shafee’s statement in court as it was reported in the media the next day. Mahathir had been subpoenaed to attend the court hearing but he fought tooth and nail to resist appearing in court.

In the July 6, 2000 issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review, it was written that “when asked about Shafee’s claims, Mahathir told reporters, in apparent reference to Anwar: “I don’t know. What I do know is that there was one person who tried to prevent a case being tried in court, but as far as I tried to interfere… I don’t know.”

After denying it in June 2000, several years later, in 2008, he could remember the incident based on his version. Mahathir had also forgotten that he had vilified Shafee openly in his letter that was published in The Sun dated April 8, 2008.

The next question to ask is why should Shafee lie? What could he gain by lying? I am sure he would gain a lot if he had chosen to just keep quiet. In fact, by being firm and maintaining the facts of the case as required under the law, he had incurred the wrath of the prime minister.

What has he personally to gain?

Under the circumstances, a person needs a great deal of courage to defend his or her conviction. It would have been easier to succumb, to not rock the boat, or displease the prime minister. As ACA DG, Shafee was legally bound to investigate any infringement of the laws on corruption, irrespective of the position of the person.

When the prime minister, who was responsible for his appointment as ACA DG by the Yang di Pertuan Agong, summoned Shafee to his office and be confronted with words, “How dare you investigate my senior officer!”, would that not indicate a scolding by a superior of a subordinate?

And what did the words imply? Based on Shafee’s testimony in court, the investigation on the EPU DG arose out of a formal complaint/report lodged by an aggrieved party, and not because Shafee wanted to fix the EPU DG. This can easily be verified from official records and the complainant identified.

One should also ask the question why would a civil servant whose contract was about to expire, would want to do anything that could offend the prime minister, unless he believed in the lawfulness of his actions and that the prime minister too would let the law take its course.

What had Shafee personally to gain from his actions? He was merely doing his job, upholding the law based on truth.

In Surah An-Nisa 4:135, Allah SWT says, “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allah is a Better Protector to both (than you). So follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you avoid justice; and if you distort your witness or refuse to give it, verily, Allah is Ever Well-Acquainted with what you do.”

Mahathir had a dossier on Khairy built from the young man’s personal background, skills, experience, activities, his network of friends and business connections, the political leaning and views, his connection with Singapore journalists, business associates and especially Khairy’s international connections especially in the USA via his Singapore contacts. Khairy had attended attended college in Singapore and later was involved in the Avenue Capital-ECM Libra money-making scheme with Kalimullah Hassan who was the media chief of Badawi-linked ECM Libra.

Unfortunately, Mahathir failed to succeed in forcing the police to arrest Khairy on charges of being some ‘foreign agent’. Why? It was because Mahathir – under the impression he was omnipotent-  had made the tactical error of having resigned first before pressing the government machinery to do his bidding!

Yes, Mahathir has regretted resigning too early, leaving several critical things undone, objectives not accomplished and the plan to put his son as PM unfinished, while dreaming at the same time of the post of Secretary-General for the United Nations.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday he opposes a new photo ID requirement in Texas elections because it would be harmful to minority voters.

In remarks to the NAACP in Houston, the attorney general said the Justice Department "will not allow political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right." Under the law passed in Texas, Holder said that "many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them – and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them."

"We call those poll taxes," Holder added spontaneously, drawing applause as he moved away from the original text of his speech with a reference to a fee used in some Southern states after slavery's abolition to disenfranchise black people.

The 24th amendment to the constitution made that type of tax illegal.

Holder spoke a day after a trial started in federal court in Washington over the 2011 law passed by Texas' GOP-dominated Legislature that requires voters to show photo identification when they get to the polls.

Under Texas' law, Holder noted, a concealed handgun license would serve as acceptable ID to vote, but a student ID would not. He went on to say that while only 8 percent of white people do not have government-issued photo IDs, about 25 percent of black people lack such identification.

"I don't know what will happen as this case moves forward, but I can assure you that the Justice Department's efforts to uphold and enforce voting rights will remain aggressive," the attorney general said.

Holder said the arc of American history has always moved toward expanding the electorate and that "we will simply not allow this era to be the beginning of the reversal of that historic progress."

"I will not allow that to happen," he added.

The attorney general spoke at the 103rd convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which is launching a battle against new state voter ID laws. NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous has likened the fight against conservative-backed voter ID laws passed in several states to "Selma and Montgomery times," referring to historic Alabama civil rights confrontations of the mid-1960s.

Holder, the first black man named U.S. Attorney General, was received with resounding applause, a standing ovation and chants of "Holder, Holder, Holder" at the convention.

Those chants quickly changed to "stand your ground, stand your ground," a reference to a Florida law that neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman is using to defend fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager he encountered while patrolling his community in February. Police did not initially arrest or charge Zimmerman, saying the "stand your ground" law allowed self-defense. He was later charged with second-degree murder.

Holder said the Justice Department under his leadership has taken unprecedented steps to study and prevent violence against youth and address the high homicide rate among young black men.

Finally, the attorney general noted with pride that the U.S. Supreme Court in two recent rulings regarding President Barack Obama's health care law and immigration laws passed in Arizona, largely supported the federal government and the Department of Justice. However, he said, he remained concerned that Arizona law enforcement, under the portion of the law upheld by the court, would be able to check the immigration status of any person suspected of being in the United States illegally.

"No American should ever live under a cloud of suspicion just because of what they look like," Holder said.

"an invisible cabal of conspirators

WASTING AWAY

Is Tun Maha-tahi running scared? Is he shitting in his pants? I don’t think so knowing this cunning and shrewd old man. He is just toying with the rakyat and expects some sympathy votes for BN.
Tun has just need to respond to Barry Wains’s accusation of the billion dollar losses and sue the shit out of this Aussie to prove that he’s innocent. Why is he not doing that? That speaks volume of his innocence or guilt?Mamthir thinks he is funny with is shallow wit. If only he can have a word with Mubarak, he will know it is not funny. When the can of Mamathir’s worms are opened, it will stink to high heavens. A jury of teenaged children will find it difficult not to convict you!If he is found not breaching any laws of the country he should then not be unduly worried. I am sure if an independent judiciary exists (if so) in Malaysia, all will be very much happy to accept the verdict of any case.
As it is now, justice is not seen to be fair.

Read between his lines for what the Tun had to say. Playing up the typical psyche game to elicit for sympathty votes for his son as a backdoor entry to regaining power in Putrajaya.
This reverse strategy would not work for him.Unless the voters are all so gullible to extend him some comfort, getting to rally and support him again and thereby causing the irreversible downfall of this Nation.
He destroyed the dreams of many and build up empires for his selected few.

spend six nights in jail on fabricated charges. So what is the big deal? Maybe u should spend some nights there to see how i felt.Well, that’s what you did to quite a few people, AI included. I dont like to see you JAILED, but i would very much like to see you HANGED
We do not have to fabricate charges as you have done. You may think that you have been very careful and smart to ensure you have covered your tracks well. You may even be able to justify your evil actions and get away from being convicted. But, you cannot get away from your Maker and from the court of public opinion. To me, the worst you had done was to take away the freedom of over 100 mainly opposition politicians to further your cause. That was downright evil. The day of reckoning will surely come! you should appeal to all rakyat, in particular all those who will vote PR in. Unfortunately, me, my spouse, kids, siblings, friends, and those I know who will vote PR, are eager to see you in jail. In fact, we all want a snake to be in a cage, not behind bars.There are many ways not leave traces of a murder( use C4) or a robbery.( money in a foreign bank by using proxy) We know and the public knows. Evidence can disappear overnight and files missing. Immigration records can be deleted. Public Prosecutors can purposely screw up a case. And some people can get amnesia suddenly. Looks like me, smells like me, sounds like me but it is not me?
But, we the Rakyat want you convicted for real crimes and jailed in a dungeon below ground level, so we can piss on you every time we visit !He will get fair trials. After all he is always saying our judiciary is fair and independent, so there’s nothing to worry about. Like Lim Guan Eng was jailed very fairly. How sad his children didn’t get scholarships, daddy can only afford to go horse riding in Argentina. Bailouts ok? Dr Tun Mahathir you are forgiven
Please return to India with your wealth and transform your ancestor’s home town . With the many years of experience building up Malaysia as you claimed you had done, once again you will be appreciated and regain back your honour in India .

Heard of “Reversal Psychology”?!

Only government that governs and administer good governance policies that breed(‘accentuates’) good laws will not tolerate nonsense, nonsense that mock the rule of law, if the the harsh law that is agreed and enacted says shoot, hang or life-imprisons a crime of theft of nation’s wealth where one living and lifestyle as a government servant and minister cannot possibly afford even though hidden away, at the least, there should be no cover up nor immunity and all the craps about accolades of unTOUnCHABLE should not be a hindrance nor protect any tyrant of alleged crime of corruption of any degree of present and past leaders, serves all the rule of law of justice be meted out accordingly even the law sentence is minimum to a degree that even if it is enacted that says “one will be banished from having the rights of enjoying a full benefits of monetary from retirement, there is no need to put him in jail like what his appeal the punishment of tyrants of other country had faced.

Taking away one’s all benefits except a monthly wage of two thousand Ringgit is good for his entitlement to living life as a normal government servant is good moral conduct punishment for one that is rightfully found guilty as charged!

The moral compass has failed miserably in the government for good governance and justice.

As Bruce Lee famously likes to quote,
“Knowing is not enough, you must apply; willing is not enough, you must do.”
I just want to tell you that there are so many people I met wants you to die quickly and, rot and burn in the fiercest hell fire. They are even so very eager to pee on your grave right after your funeral. They are so mean. But for me, I wish that you have long life so that my family and I are able to see you being put on trial and subsequently thrown into jail for all the pain and agony you have done on us. I suggest before the karma comes to a full cycle on you, please return all the money you and your sons have stolen from us. Tell the AG office, PDRM, MACC and the other UMNO-regime apparatus that you have intimidated over the years to stop sucking your dick as it is now flaccid and is of no use to them anymore.

Toon Kutty, again please, go see the doctor before the next GE and make sure you are in good health and that the doctor give you the adequate medication. You need a strong heart to face the lawyers, judges and even the public in and out of the courtroom. We also do not want you to be wheeled in bed in-and-out of the courtroom like what is happening to Hosni Mubarak now. Pity him! How he wish he is deader than a dead duck.
…

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng opened the forum, at which the speakers were Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and Dr Rosli Yaakop, a former Bank Negara official, by highlighting the Freedom of Information bill the Penang legislature passed last year.

Its passage displays to advantage the merits of the DAP-led Pakatan Rakyat government of Penang with its emphasis on openness and transparency, derided as a sham by its BN critics but lauded by admirers as exemplary governance for both state and nation.

Presumably, a comparable bill, had it been promulgated by the Federal government, would not have left unexposed for so long one of the more damaging scandals to beset the country which occurred nearly two decades ago.

This was the Bank Negara foreign currency trading scam in which a mind-boggling sum was conjectured (its precise amount, until yesterday, was a figment of public speculation than of authoritative disclosure) to have been lost and was, at the time of its initial revelation, officially dismissed, in what must now be viewed as a staggering euphemism, as “paper losses.”

“They were real, not paper losses,” said Anwar, who revealed that he first came to know of Bank Negara’s speculative forays on the forex markets from a friend in Zurich in 1991 and, later, from the editor of the now defunct Far Eastern Economic Review.  

At that time the losses were incurred, as the first gleanings of the disaster reverberated across the political arena, these were disclosed as amounting to RM10.16 billion until 1992, and as RM5.76 billion, in 1992 alone.

Rosli Yaacop, in his presentation yesterday, held that losses suffered were closer to a stupefying RM30 billion. What Rosli, a deputy manager in Bank Negara at the time the scandal ran its course (between the late 1980s to the early 1990s) and what Anwar, the Finance Minister on whose watch it came to light, revealed to the 400-plus people at yesterday’s forum reinforced the truth of Acton’s insight on the futility of camouflaging what democracies, including Malaysia’s makeshift version, would inevitably engender over time: the outing of the truth about tawdry goings-on.

The Bank Negara foreign currency trading scandal was, in yesterday’s sketches by Rosli and Anwar, conceived in secrecy and conducted by subterfuge between the then central bank’s Governor, Jaffar Hussein, and its foreign currency arbitrageur and rougue trader, Nor Mohamed Yaacop, with the knowledge, if not connivance, of then Finance Minister, Daim Zainuddin, and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed.

Anwar, who replaced Daim as Finance Minister in early 1991, did not know about the machinations of Nor Mohamed who apparently enjoyed a free hand; Governor Jaffar was not obliged, on account of the central bank’s statutory independence of the Treasury, to brief the Finance Minister.

After Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, raised the alarm in 1991 that Malaysia’s exposure on forex trading was alarmingly high — drawing a typically combative rebuke from Prime Minister Mahathir — the qualms about Bank Negara’s speculative forays, viewed as reckless gambling by finance moguls in the know, burgeoned to the point where Anwar demanded in 1994 that Jaffar come clean on the matter.

By then, when the stupendous losses suffered had escalated beyond the point where the huge profits garnered in earlier years had become a tantalizing mirage that paved the way to disaster, Anwar raised the matter with Mahathir.

Mahathir allowed that the forays had brought huge gains in the initial stages but that subsequent losses had made the exercise no longer sustainable. He publicly maintained that the losses were only on paper to a public to which DAP’s Lim Kit Siang strenuously raised the alarm that a numerically feeble opposition could not sustain above nuisance-level.  This scenario has now changed with the Opposition’s beefed up numbers and pretensions to take over Putrajaya.

The half-buried financial and corruption scandals of past decades in Malaysia, scams that would have brought down most democratic governments, are now on course for disinterment by a fortified opposition and a newly sensitized public.

But Anwar’s take on the whole gamut is that the public has a right to know but that the imperative of understanding must overcome the impulse for vengeance.He said the country must have its own version of South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission whose purpose was to expose the enormities of the apartheid era with a view to sedating the torments of that oppressive period.

In that Anwar said he was moved by what Nelson Mandela told him when the father of that nation invited him, wife Azizah and children to Johannesburg to be his guests shortly after Anwar’s release from jail, after serving six years on corruption and sodomy convictions, in 2004.

Mandela was apologetic for not doing enough to free Anwar. He had seen Mahathir personally to plead in Anwar’s cause. But Mahathir was reportedly silent and unmoved. “I told Mandela ‘Never mind, yours was a 27 years march to freedom, mine was a short six year walk’ ” recalled Anwar.

In other words, life is too short to be small but scandals must see the light of an Actonian reckoning.

The population of aging and elderly prisoners in U.S. prisons exploded over the past three decades, with nearly 125,000 inmates aged 55 or older now behind bars, according to a report published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. This represents an increase of over 1,300 percent since the early 1980s.

More than $16 billion is spent annually by states and the federal government to incarcerate elderly prisoners, despite ample evidence that most prisoners over age 50 pose little or no threat to public safety, the report said. Due largely to higher health care costs, prisoners aged 50 and older cost around $68,000 a year to incarcerate, compared to $34,000 per year for the average prisoner.

Unless dramatic changes are made to sentencing and parole policies, the number of older prisoners could soar as high as 400,000 by 2030, posing a tremendous threat to state and federal budgets, said Inimai Chettiar, a co-author of the report.

“If we continue spending on prisons the way that we are, particularly on this aging population that’s low risk, we’re going to get to a place where states can’t afford to spend on anything else,” Chettiar said.

And while elderly inmates released from prison will require medical care and other public services, a fiscal analysis by the ACLU found that states would save an average of more than $66,000 per year for each elderly prisoner they release.

“Simply put, it is an unwise use of taxpayer dollars to spend enormous amounts of money locking up elderly prisoners who no longer need to be behind bars,” said William Bunting, an ACLU economist and co-author of the report.

The population of elderly prisoners is not booming due to a geriatric crime wave. In fact, statistics show there are fewer old people committing crimes than before, Chettiar said.

Rather, the report found that the graying of the nation’s prisons is largely the result of harsh sentencing laws enacted during the 1980s and 1990s, creating a vast pool of prisoners serving extraordinarily long sentences, often for non-violent crimes or drug offenses. Many states created statutes that triggered long sentences — including life in prison — for repeat offenders, even for those convicted of a series of relatively minor crimes.

Harsh anti-drug statutes and ‘truth-in-sentencing’ laws — which dictate that inmates serve the majority of their sentences before being paroled — also led to a sharp increase in the number of inmates growing old in prison.

As prisons increasingly resemble nursing homes, some states are considering more cost-effective alternatives. In 2011, the Louisiana legislature passed a law making it easier for inmates over the age of 60 to obtain parole hearings. The law only applies to non-violent offenders. Louisiana’s prisons suffer from some of the worst overcrowding in the nation.

Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, applauded the move. “Louisiana should not be using taxpayer dollars to lock up elderly individuals when they pose no danger to our communities,” Esman said in a statement at the time.

Statistics show that the likelihood of a prisoner committing a new crime post-release drops sharply in old age. However, many older inmates do end up back behind bars for parole violations.