Singapore Prison Service


The Singapore Prison Service is a government agency of the Government of Singapore under the hierarchy of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It runs 14 prisons and drug rehabilitation centres in Singapore. Its responsibilities encompass the safe custody, rehabilitation and aftercare of offenders, and preventive education.

History

1800 – 1899

On 18 April 1825, the first batch of penal convicts arrived in Singapore and were housed in temporary huts along Bras Basah Canal. The philosophy of deterrence through punitive measures rather than rehabilitation was adopted. In 1847, a civil jail was built at Pearl's Hill but overcrowding remained a perennial problem and a continued punitive approach in prison management led to a high rate of recidivism.

1900 – 1999

Changi Prison, a maximum security prison, was built and operationalised in 1936 as a training ground for the reform and rehabilitation of its inmates. The Singapore Prison Service was institutionalised as a Department in 1946 and G.E.W.W. Bayly became its first Commissioner. On 1 November 1973, Quek Shi Lei was appointed Director of Prisons.
The Ministry of Home Affairs set up a Prisons Re-Organisation Committee to review the system of rehabilitation, industrial training and work discipline. A new system of classification was then adopted in which inmates were grouped into 16 classes under three broad categories.
On 1 January 1988, Tee Tua Ba took over as Director of Prisons, while Quek Shi Lei acted as an advisor to Singapore Prison Service and became CEO of the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises.
When Tee Tua Ba was posted to the Singapore Police Force as Commissioner of Police on 1 July 1992, Poh Geok Ek took over the Directorship of Singapore Prison Service until 1 November 1998.
Another milestone in Singapore Prison Service’s history was the official opening of Tanah Merah Prison and Changi Women’s Prison/Drug Rehabilitation Centre on 23 April 1994 by Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng.
In 1998, Chua Chin Kiat took over as Director of Singapore Prison Service from Poh Geok Ek when the latter retired. Under Chua’s directorship, the Singapore Prison Service organised a visioning exercise in January 1999 to collectively craft a shared vision and conduct a review of its mission to better accommodate the changing needs and expectations of its stakeholders and the public.
On 31 December 1999, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the redevelopment of Changi Prison Complex, Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng unveiled the new vision and revised mission together with the “Captain of Lives” tagline.

2000 – Present

On 3 January 2000, Kaki Bukit Centre was established as a prison school for inmates’ education and skills learning. Teaching resources were centralised and more inmates were able to pursue further education.
Presently, the new Changi Prison or the Changi Prison Complex houses the most serious criminal offenders in the country, including criminal offenders who are serving long sentences and those who have been sentenced to death. Changi Prison Complex serves as the detention site for death row inmates at Changi, before they are executed by hanging, traditionally on a Friday morning. It is also one of the main places where judicial corporal punishment by caning is carried out. Caning sessions at Changi are held twice per week. A former employee of the prison was quoted in 1995 as saying: "They are flogging more and more these days. Before they were doing maybe 60 on Tuesdays and Fridays, now they're doing a hundred".
The Yellow Ribbon Project was also launched in October 2004 to raise public awareness and acceptance of the community towards ex-offenders, so as to garner community support for inmates’ re-integration into society.
On 1 November 2007, Ng Joo Hee took over office from Chua Chin Kiat, the latter moving on to become the executive director or AETOS Security Management. In the same year, Selarang Park Prison/DRC was also transformed to a community supervision centre to manage inmates emplaced on community based programmes and released on supervision.
After two years as Director of Prisons, Ng Joo Hee moved on to become the Commissioner of Police. On 1 January 2010, Soh Wai Wah took over office and is the current Director of Prisons. Soh oversaw the official opening of a new prison cluster in Changi Prison Complex - Cluster B, on 20 January 2010.

Organisation

The Singapore Prison Service is a uniformed organisation under the hierarchy of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its responsibilities encompass the safe custody, rehabilitation and aftercare of offenders, and preventive education. SPS is made up of uniformed officers as well as civilian staff, including psychologists and counsellors

Organisation Structure

SPS currently administers 14 institutions. They make up SPS’s line units and are grouped under four clusters – Cluster A and B which are within the Changi Prison Complex, Cluster C which includes the Prisons School, and Operations and Security Command.
SPS has seven staff divisions - Operations, Staff Development, Corporate Services, Rehabilitation & Reintegration, Strategic Planning & Research, Intelligence, and Psychological & Correctional Rehabilitation Division – that comprise 29 staff units; as well as three standalone units, namely, Corporate Communications & Relations, Provost, and Staff Inspectorate.
Department / DivisionDirector / Commander
Corporate Communications & Relations DivisionAC Kong Ling Chieh Titus
Operations DivisionSAC Koh Tong Hai
Staff Development DivisionMs Cecilia Chew Li-Hwa
Rehabilitation & Reintegration DivisionSAC Lee Kwai Sem
Logistics & Finance DivisionSAC Chiew Honk Meng
Intelligence DivisionSAC Chew Chwee Leong Vincent
Strategic Planning DivisionDAC Foo Ee Lin
Psychological and Correctional Rehabilitation DivisionLeo Hee Sun Timothy
Transformation & Technology DivisionDAC Loh Teck En
Inspectorate and Review DivisionSUPT Kan Hsueh Yee Carolyn
Provost DivisionSUPT Lam Mong Teng
Cluster A Management OfficeDAC Lim Ai Lian Caroline
Cluster B Management OfficeAC Chia Jin Ming Benjamin
Cluster C Management OfficeDAC Tan Eng Keong
Community Corrections CommandAC Rockey Francisco Junior
Operations and Security CommandDAC Soh Beng Koon

Related Initiatives

CARE Network

The Community Action for the Rehabilitation of Ex-Offenders Network was formed in May 2000 to coordinate and to improve the effectiveness of various agencies engaging in rehabilitative works for ex-offenders in Singapore.
The CARE Network is the first formal structure that brings together key community and government agencies to promote seamless in-care to aftercare support for ex-offenders. The Network consists of 8 major community and government organisations responsible for the rehabilitation of ex-offenders.

New Prison Headquarters

On 10 December 2012, it was announced that a new S$118.5 million Prison Headquarters of the Changi Prison Complex will be constructed by December 2014. The project was awarded to Sembawang Engineers and Constructors, which is owned by the Punj Lloyd Group Company.
The new headquarters will have four buildings and several smaller ancillary buildings that will house office facilities, a multi-purpose hall, a club house and an auditorium. It will also be in closer proximity to Cluster A and Cluster B within the Changi complex.

Equipment

Although the SPS officers are armed with less-than-lethal weapons such as the PR-21 side handle baton and pepper spray while on duty, they are trained in firearms, which may be issued depending on the circumstances.
;Pistols
;Shotguns
;Sub-machine guns
;Assault rifles
Vehicles
Less-lethal options

Fictional television programs

Movies

Current affairs programmes