Jan 26, 2011
One in four prisoners is a re-offender
Rate is lower than in other countries, but has edged up since 2006
By Mavis Toh
ABOUT one in four people sent to jail in Singapore is a re-offender. Among those released in 2008, for example, 27.3 per cent were back behind bars within two years. But this is an improvement - a 17 percentage point drop from the cohort released in 1998, where 44.4 per cent of them later found themselves back in jail.
The statistics come from the Singapore Prison Service (SPS), which has, for the first time, released the figures that government leaders have cited only piecemeal so far. SPS plans to make this report an annual one.
An SPS spokesman put the fall in the re-offending, or recidivism, rate down to a combination of a strict inmate-management regime and a rehabilitation programme tailored to the needs of inmates so that they do not return to crime and to prison.
For example, programmes are in place to help inmates deal with stress, drug addiction, anger and violence. There is also a prison school so that inmates can use the time to gain educational qualifications.
But is a recidivism rate of 27.3 per cent 'good'? Giving the figure perspective, Mr Prem Kumar, the director of the Singapore After-Care Association (Saca), said recidivism in other countries commonly shoots past 50 per cent, 'so our rates are very good'.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
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