SINGAPORE - Seven years after the launch of Corrections 2025, the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) unveiled Corrections 2030 on April 30 to expand and strengthen its rehabilitation programmes for inmates by leveraging technology and community partnerships.

The latest initiative is anchored on five strategies, including the uplifting of inmates’ families to help break the cycle of re-offending and intergenerational offending, and maximising employability and career progression of inmates and former offenders.

The other strategies are: smart prisons to achieve the best possible rehabilitation outcomes for inmates, mobilising the community to build up the capabilities of volunteers and community partners, and developing the role of prison officers as Captains of Lives.

Launching Corrections 2030 at the 2024 SPS-Yellow Ribbon Singapore (YRSG) workplan seminar, held at the Singapore Expo on April 30, SPS Commissioner Shie Yong Lee said SPS and YRSG will leverage technology and community partnerships to help former offenders desist from a life of crime and drugs through their programmes.

“As the social enablers in Corrections 2030, SPS and YRSG will uplift inmates’ employability and increase their social and community capital,” Ms Shie added.

“Since 2019, YRSG has also rolled out Tap & Grow, partnering employers and trade associations to establish training academies inside prisons for sectors such as precision engineering, media, logistics and food services.”

Current figures from SPS are encouraging. Assault rates in prison dropped from about 62 per 10,000 inmates in 2022 to 54 per 10,000 inmates in 2023.

In addition, the two-year recidivism rate has been among the lowest in the world, with 22 per cent for the 2021 release cohort, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was the guest of honour at the event.

He said the aim is not just to secure and rehabilitate inmates, but also to uplift them together with their families.

“For ex-offenders, getting and staying in a job is critical in both keeping them from reoffending, and for getting them to uplift themselves,” said Mr Shanmugam.

In 2023, family-focused programmes benefited slightly more than 3,000 inmates, he added.

The year 2024 also marks 20 years of the Yellow Ribbon Project (YRP) in championing second chances for former offenders.

Mr Shanmugam launched the YRP 20th Anniversary celebrations with a new campaign that shifts towards stronger community advocacy and active participation in the second-chances movement.

SPS also partnered more than 20 agencies to support families with children impacted by detention of their parents, involving around 1,000 children.

In addition, inmates released on supervision are able to help themselves via the Self-Help and Rehabilitation e-Resources, or Share, mobile app, which provides easy access to information that can facilitate their reintegration into the community.

SPS’ strategic planning division director, Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) Patricia Tung, told The Straits Times that it is shifting its focus to longer-term desistance, which would require support from partners.

DAC Tung said: “Prisons (SPS) and YRSG can’t do it alone... It’s how we work with the community to provide that whole ecosystem of support, whether it’s in-care, but also when they (inmates) are released, and aftercare. Beyond the two years, how do you still continue to engage (former offenders)?” 

When the business landscape faced a manpower crunch post-Covid-19, more employers were willing to hire former inmates.

Ms Paulin Chua, director of Partnership@YR at YRSG, told ST: “So in 2022, we saw more employers stepping forward to hire ex-offenders. This led to more employers registering with Yellow Ribbon Singapore to offer jobs to ex-offenders.”

As at December 2023, 6,516 employers had registered with YRSG. This was an increase from 5,634 registered employers in 2021.

YRSG bridges the gap between employers and former offender employees by building a network of workplace supervisors and career coaches to support former offenders in their workplace, added Ms Chua.

Former drug offender Hamzah Mohd Ariff, who has successfully walked the path of rehabilitation, is giving back as a desistor and volunteer at community partners BapaHebat SG and New Life Stories.

Since 2019, he has stayed clean from his past meth addiction. Now he wants former offenders to be responsible fathers who provide for their families.

“I joined BapaHebat SG to help fathers who are former offenders,” said Mr Hamzah, who turned 33 on April 30. “I can’t force them (former offenders) to listen, but I can give solutions by keeping them occupied with activities, giving them ideas... not to relapse. It is important in a family that you want your children to look up to you.”