Speeches
Response to CNN’s Feature on Singapore’s Drug Control Regime
7 November 2024
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1. We refer to CNN’s feature published on 19 Oct 2024 regarding Singapore’s drug control regime (“Exclusive: Inside the prison that executes people for supplying cannabis”; “CNN gets rare look inside Singapore’s prison where inmates face execution by hanging for drug trafficking”). We regret that the feature presents an incomplete picture of Singapore’s approach towards drugs.
Treatment and Rehabilitation for Drug Abusers
2. Singapore invests an immense amount of effort and resources to rehabilitate and reintegrate drug abusers into society. It involves many dedicated people working together – prison officers, counsellors, social workers, job placement officers, and even volunteers – to deliver holistic and evidence-based programmes and interventions.
3. Drug abusers who do not commit other crimes or serious drug offences will not get a criminal record, and are channeled to the Drug Rehabilitation Centre (DRC). There, they receive targeted treatment and rehabilitation, depending on their extent of addiction. They also undergo other appropriate programmes to help them resist drugs after release, such as programmes to strengthen their familial relationships. We also help increase their employability through educational and vocational training.
4. After completing their rehabilitation programmes in the DRC, ex-abusers will return to the community with the support of reintegration and supervision officers, correctional rehabilitation specialists (counsellors), case managers and career coaches. They will also have access to community resources to help with accommodation and financial support. Research shows that such step-down arrangements in the community help lower reoffending.
5. We take a similar approach in the rehabilitation of convicted inmates, including “Matthew”, who was featured on CNN. The rehabilitation inmates receive goes beyond “abundant emotional wellness messaging”. They undergo psychology-based correctional programmes to motivate them to change and work on the mindsets that led to their offending in the first place. They also undergo skills training, work programmes and education. Just prior to release, they undergo preparatory programmes to ease them back to their family and society, and also job interviews and job matching.
6. Our efforts have borne fruit. Our two-year recidivism rate remains amongst the lowest globally, at 22.0% for the 2021 release cohort. We also have one of the lowest assault rates, at 53.8 per 10,000 offender population in 2023.The two-year recidivism rate for drug abusers has more than halved over the last 30 years, from 73% in 1993 to 27.7% in 2021. Drug abusers also have good employment prospects after completing rehabilitation. In 2023, about 97% of abusers referred to Yellow Ribbon Singapore (YRSG) for employment assistance had jobs waiting for them upon release into the community.
Conditions in Prison
7. Singapore’s prison regime and environment are intentionally kept austere. The conditions reflect Singapore’s philosophy of how prisons ought to be – the essential needs of inmates are met while maintaining safety and security. For example, there are no fans inside the cells for inmates. Mounted fans pose a security risk as they can be anchor points for suicide. They could also be dismantled and the parts potentially used as weapons. Instead, there is a combination of natural and mechanical ventilation inside the cells.
8. CNN’s feature of “Matthew” had truncated his views on the prison environment. For example, Matthew had surmised that the conditions were “okay” in general, but the feature omitted this and instead selectively quoted him to paint a different picture. Moreover, when asked how he spent his time in prison, Matthew had said he spent his time reading books and writing e-letters on the electronic tablet in his cell. He had also shared that he participated in an empatherapy programme as a peer supporter. This taught him skills to help other inmates share their feelings, build relationships and discuss topics that were important to them, such as conversations about their pending release or fathering. He had said he would run and do simple exercises in the recreational yard to stay healthy. Matthew had also shared that he appreciated the four years of sobriety in prison. It had allowed his brain to become healthy again, and he was now able to reflect and make better decisions. All these details were conveniently left out by CNN.
The Deterrence of the Death Penalty
9. CNN’s feature quoted Matthew as saying that when he was trafficking drugs, he was “actively avoiding the whole issue of consequences”. This might be the case for Matthew, but there is objective evidence that traffickers are deterred by the death penalty, and that they deliberately restrict the amount of drugs that they carry to avoid it. 1 Our surveys also show that in regions where many of our drug traffickers come from, the large majority of the public believe that Singapore’s death penalty deters drug trafficking. 2
Facts behind Nazeri’s Case
10. CNN’s feature brought up the case of Nazeri bin Lajim, who was described as a “life-long drug addict, but not a violent man”. Nazeri was sentenced and convicted of possessing not less than 33.89 grammes of diamorphine, or pure heroin, for the purpose of trafficking. 33.89 grammes of heroin is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 400 abusers for a week. Nazeri was accorded full due process under the law. Prior to this conviction, he had several brushes with the law, including for drug consumption, theft, housebreaking and vandalism. He was not a mere drug addict.
Comparison of Singapore and Hong Kong
11. CNN compared Hong Kong and Singapore, stating that despite Hong Kong’s “considerably larger population”, it only made a few hundred more drug arrests than Singapore in 2023. While the article cited that Hong Kong made 3,406 drug arrests in 2023, MHA notes that Hong Kong’s Central Registry of Drug Abuse registered 5,500 drug abusers in the same year. 3 In addition, in the first 11 months of 2023, Hong Kong reportedly confiscated 8.4 tonnes of illegal drugs, a record for any single year over the past two decades. 4
12. CNN also did not feature Minister K Shanmugam’s response to this question during the interview. Minister Shanmugam had pointed out that Hong Kong shared a border with China, which had the death penalty for drug trafficking; and drug trafficking took place substantially through land crossings. China’s strict and effective enforcement system might therefore have contributed to Hong Kong staying relatively drug-free in terms of arrests. Minister Shanmugam had also pointed out that unlike Hong Kong, Singapore is situated at the doorstep of the Golden Triangle, home to major drug production centres, in a region labelled by UNODC as the world’s largest source of opium and “literally swimming in methamphetamine”.
13. Every country needs to choose the drug control approach that works best for them, based on their unique circumstances. Singapore’s approach has worked well for us. We believe that our people should have the right to live healthy and fulfilling lives, free from the snares of drug addiction. We seek to provide a safe and drug-free society for our people, so that they can flourish and live to their fullest potential.
[1] Source: The Impact of Deterrence on the Decision-Making Process of Drug Traffickers (Kaur, J., Teo, K.S., Samion, S., 2020).
[2] 87% of respondents believed that the death penalty makes people not want to traffic substantial amounts of drugs into Singapore, and 83% believed that the death penalty is more effective than life imprisonment in discouraging people from trafficking drugs into Singapore. Source: Perception of Residents in Regional Cities on Singapore’s Crime Situation, Law and Safety (MHA Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre, 2021).
[3] Source:
[4] “Hong Kong customs seizes drugs worth HK$4.4 billion in first 11 months of year in 2-decade record, 274 arrested”, South China Morning Post, published 27 Dec 2023, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3246291/hong-kong-customs-seizes-drugs-worth-hk44-billion-first-11-months-year-2-decade-record-274-arrested.