“The Star Thrower” (or “starfish story”) is part of a 16-page essay of the same name by Loren Eiseley (1907–1977). It relates the account of an elderly man who spotted a young boy flinging stranded starfishes back into the ocean one at a time. ANNUAL REPORT 2013 The old man observed, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.” The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!” SINGAPORE PRISON SERVICE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 Vision As Captains of Lives, we inspire everyone, at every chance, towards a society C0NTENTS without re-offending. Director’s Foreword ..... 2 Mission As Captains of Lives As a key partner in Criminal Directorate Members ..... 6 Justice, we protect society SPS Re-Visioning: Setting New Frontiers ..... 8 through the safe custody and What Does Inspire Mean to Me ..... 12 rehabilitation of offenders, co-operating in prevention and aftercare. We Inspire Enhanced Supervision: Involving Home Team Agencies in Offenders’ Throughcare ..... 20 A Pictorial in the Making of Captains of Lives ..... 25 A Life Inspired: Success Story of a reformed Ex-Offender ..... 31 The Yellow Ribbon Project: A Decade of Inspiring Lives ..... 33 Rehab Inspired to Inspire: Is a commitment to our Volunteering One’s Past to Change Another ..... 38 programmes and services within the system to support inmates who have proven that they have the inherent desire to change. Everyone at Every Chance Operations Division ..... 42 Renew Staff Development Division ..... 46 Rehabilitation and Reintegration Division ..... 50 Is a commitment an inmate makes Corporate Services Division ..... 54 to change his/her life for the Intelligence Division ..... 58 better. Looking beyond their Strategic Planning Division ..... 62 imprisonment, they demonstrate a Psychological & Correctional Rehabilitation Division ..... 66 willingness and desire to renew Corporate Communications & Relations Branch ..... 70 their lives. Provost Branch ..... 72 Staff Inspectorate Branch ..... 74 Cluster A ..... 76 Restart Cluster B ..... 80 Is a commitment to garner the Cluster C ..... 84 support of the community. Operations & Security Command ..... 88 Through the CARE network, our offenders are given opportunities Against Re-offending to restart their lives. Statistics ..... 94 Almanac ..... 111 SINGAPORE PRISON SerVICE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 01 Director’s Foreword The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) took a big ordination for our common goal of rehabilitation step to become a correctional service in 2013. of released persons. We also celebrated 10 The Enhanced Supervision Scheme which years of the Yellow Ribbon Project by launching started late in 2012, went into full swing in 2013, a commemorative book which not merely providing casework to drug offenders after they articulated the history of the Yellow Ribbon were released. This was a major development in Project, but also sketched out the blueprint for its our capabilities, like adding airpower to an army. future. No more do we rely just on our actions inside the prisons to rehabilitate someone. We have But a correctional service is not just about since extended our rehabilitation efforts beyond rehabilitation. It is also about safe and secure the prison walls, into the community. With our prisons. The SPS’s professionalism in this area involvement since 2011 in pre-imprisonment took another stride forward when we conducted community-based alternatives to jail sentences, a major risk review exercise to surface gaps and and in 2013 this foray into post-imprisonment then addressed the gaps. casework, we had morphed from merely being a prison service, to become a correctional service. Looking forward, 2014 will not be a mere continuation of the SPS’s journey as a This change was further cemented in November correctional service. It will also be the start of a 2013 with the introduction of the Prisons Act fresh five-year strategic plan through which we amendments in Parliament to make provisions will see our prisons technologically transformed for released persons to come under mandatory and community corrections expanded. And in aftercare. With the Act passed in January 2014, line with our new vision statement launched in it is now hardcoded in law for released persons 2013, we will see even more in the community to come under the aftercare of the SPS. We inspired to join in the work of eradicating have responsibility over offenders not just during recidivism in Singapore. their time in prisons, but also after their release, for their reintegration and rehabilitation. This is exactly what a correctional service does. And the SPS is not alone in this work of aftercare. The SPS and the other 100-odd agencies in the CARE Network took another step towards closer partnership, by having the first ever CARE Network workplan seminar. We now Director of Prisons have joint workplans where we work in co- Singapore Prison Service We have responsibility over offenders not just during their time in prisons, but also after their release, for their reintegration and rehabilitation. This is exactly what a correctional service does. INSPIRE 02 SINGAPORE PRISON SerVICE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 03 AS CAPTAINS OF LIVES In all that we do and all that we are Directorate Members top row, from left: soh wai wah director of prisons desmond chin deputy director of prisons/ chief of staff stanley tang director, operations delphine lee director, staff development terrence goh director, rehabilitation & reintegration Lam Cher Soon Director, Corporate Services middle row, from left: Koh Tong Hai Director, Intelligence Lee Kwai Sem Director, Strategic Planning Timothy Leo Director, Psychological & Bottom row, from left: Correctional Rehabilitation K Chandra Kumar Chiew Hock Meng Commander, Cluster a Director, Transformational Shie Yong Lee Projects Commander, Cluster b Chiam Jia Fong Phang Seok Sieng Director, Provost Commander, Cluster C Vincent Chew Commander, Operations and Security Command INSPIRE 06 SINGAPORE PRISON SerVICE ANNUAL REPORT 2013 07 Feature Feature Offenders’ strongly felt that Aftercare SPS should take on a leading role in: Prevention 75% of Offending of survey respondents over responded to the online survey in 90% just two weeks staff strongly felt that ensuring strongly felt that SPS 90% safety and security 80% facilitating rehabilitation of survey of inmates was one of of survey and reintegration of offenders respondents SPS core roles respondents was one of SPS core roles. RSettinge-Visioning New Frontiers Taking a trip down memory lane, when SPS’ vision statement was first crafted in 1999, The MV Debates and Rallies gave participants the opportunity Instead of being discouraged, such views reinforced the to catch up with old friends, make new ones, have fun team’s belief that the department’s vision statement had the department was grappling with fundamental issues such as overcrowding, staff together, and most importantly, express their aspirations for to be revised. The fact that a sizeable number of staff felt recruitment and retention difficulties, as well as a lack of rehabilitative programmes. the future. The exciting ice-breaker activities, which included comfortable with the then vision statement meant that it Today, with a state-of-the-art prison complex, professionally trained officers who are having attendees form an orchestra personally conducted had to be changed. An organisation’s vision statement publicly recognised as Captains of Lives, and a myriad of initiatives to help offenders by Director of Prisons during the MV Rallies, clearly warmed encapsulates the collective dream of its staff – something the officers up as they shared their opinions eagerly. The which is desirable but not usually immediately attainable. A return to society as reformed and responsible citizens, the SPS is no longer what it was. participants’ enthusiasm and excitement at being part of this good vision statement, therefore, is one which is discomforting historic milestone was clear for all to see. and creates tension by describing an ideal which appears The many accolades conferred on the department in recent years serve as further recognitions of the department’s transformation. unrealistic. However, it inspires at the same time because it The one achievement we are especially proud of arrived in 2012 when the SPS was awarded the Singapore Quality Award with Tension in Diversity portrays an end state which is worth striving for. Special Commendation, indicating that the department could claim to be an exemplary prison system. It was, therefore, timely to re-look at the vision statement and assess if it was still relevant. The diverse views shared by the survey respondents, as Unveiling our Future well as the MV Debates and MV Rallies participants, were Everyone Matters of immense help to the re-visioning team. However, they When the revised statement was proudly unveiled by SUPT were also challenging for the committee. A significant Foo Ee Lin, Chairperson of the SPS Visioning team, at the The re-visioning exercise began in October 2012 with the launch of an online survey open to all staff. In just two weeks, the survey proportion of the staff felt very comfortable with the existing 2013 Prisons-SCORE Corporate Advance, it was clear that garnered more than 2,200 responses, representing over 90 per cent of the department’s staff strength. The survey was followed vision statement. Even though they acknowledged that the revised statement fit the above description perfectly. by eight Mission Vision (MV) Debates sessions where around 200 participants took time off their busy work schedules to discuss the the department has progressed tremendously since 1999, One may question how it is possible for us to inspire everyone points of contention arising from the survey in greater detail, as well as to craft their own vision statements. Subsequently, another they did not see a need for the vision statement to change.