Transcript of Doorstop by Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs & Ministry of National Development at Visit to Institution TM1 (RTC)

1. The Reformative Training Centre (RTC) has been helping to provide rehabilitation and reintegration platforms for youths who may have gotten into trouble.

2. I’m happy to share that over all these years, our efforts have started to show in terms of improvements in the way we do things, as well as the recidivism rate.

3. I’m happy to share that there has been a significant improvement in the recidivism rate of Reformative Trainees, especially the two-year recidivism rate, whereby we see a significant reduction from 28.8% for the release cohort in 2018, to 16.3% for the release cohort in 2021.

4. This reduction shows that:

(a) Youths are playing their part, and are really making significant improvements in the way that they have looked at or internalised the programmes that they have undergone here at the RTC.

(b) At the same time, it is due to the effective, transformative and reformative training regime that we have embarked on at the RTC. We find that this encouraging improvement provides us the opportunities to work together, not only with the youths, but also with partners to continue this effort so that we can help many more youths.

5. We hope they don’t come back anymore, and they can continue their lives and achieve their potential because they are still young.

6. We want to continue to help those who are affected, so that overtime they can have better lives.

7. The reason for the improvement is the effective reformative training regime that we have embarked at the Singapore Prison Service.

8. With this effectiveness that we have implemented, we realised that there are opportunities for us to continue this journey.

9. Some of the key aspects of feelings that they (Reformative Trainees) go through relates to how they can better themselves and to reflect upon what they have done wrong.

10. At the same time, we look at some of the developmental milestones they can achieve, and with regards to even when they are released – we see how they can continue to be supervised and benefit from that supervision.

11. So it relates to the reform that we can help them, and also the transformation that they can embark on. At the same time, looking at the journey that they can finally go back to the society.

12. One aspect I find increasingly prevalent in our programme, is the way we provide opportunity for them to strengthen relationships with their families.

13. We have programmes like Heart2Heart talk, where we provide opportunities for the trainees and their families to come together to have different milestones and different stages of their journey, that the trainees have found very useful.

14. You realise that many of them may not have the communication platform with their family members.

15. With this Heart2Heart talk programme, they are able to start back and go into their hearts for each other, and start to understand each other better, and at the same time appreciating one another. And we have received very positive feedback on this.

16. Beyond that, we also want to provide opportunity for them to continue the journey of getting better and looking at the different choices they can make in life.

17. We have the The Game Plan, which empowers our trainees to make the right choice, continue to sustain their good behaviour, and at the same time, able to get rewarded for good behaviour, and being able to understand that life is actually about making the right choices and pursuing things that are worthwhile in your life and staying away from trouble.

18. At that young age, I think they stand to benefit with some of these opportunities that they can make in life, even though it is in a setting of release on supervision.

19. I’m happy to see that they feel energised after going through the process of rehab – energised not only in terms of the physical, but also in terms of their mental and attitude, and how they want to make things happen.

20. I spoke to the families and trainees earlier. What I could sense is that resolve to do better, and the support one can get from the other, and how appreciative they are to the Singapore Prison Service and the partners.

21. They could feel that all these changes are the result of the hard work of our colleagues and our partners.

22. These are very important aspects.

23. One other aspect I could see is that the improvements are due to the support from the community and family.

24. With the additional family programmes and contributions of our partners, you see that the boys today have more people and options to bring on upon their release.

25. They not only get support from volunteers when they are in RTC, but also when they are released.

26. Beyond the SPS officers, they have other people who want to care for them, other people who feel for them.

27. And I think that makes a lot of difference because they are not alone in this journey.

28. They have people around them, including their families, SPS officers, and also people who may be strangers to them but care for them.

29. As a human being, I’m sure this will touch their heart and motivate them to continue to do well in their rehabilitation and reintegration journey.

Question: Can you tell us with the drop in the two-year recidivism rate, what does it mean for the wider Singapore society?

30. The lower recidivism rate implies that our programmes are effective. The aspect of this success is not only about our programme that we carry out.

31. We know that we cannot do this alone. We work together with our partners, especially those from the community.

32. This shows that the ecosystem of supporting rehabilitation and reintegration has only been strengthened. This is good news for us.

33. However, we know that rehabilitation and reintegration journey is not easy – it is tough and long lasting, it has to be sustainable.

34. For some, who may be incarcerated or put in Drug Rehabilitation Centre (DRC) due to drugs – and drug issues are not easy and addictions are for life – it is important for us to continue to not only sustain, but strengthen our ecosystem.

35. So that whether you are affected by drugs or other forms of offending, you know that not only someone – but there are many people behind you to support you in this journey, and you want to make the change.

36. You want to strengthen the eco-system in such a way that not only the community and agencies are working hard, but also the inmates – in this case, the trainees themselves – are willing to make the change and make it happen.

37. I always tell them, “You must walk the talk.”.

Question: To sustain this group, what are the next steps forward and do you foresee any challenges ahead?

38. We know that it is not an easy journey. Nevertheless, we realised that when we get the desistors involved in this journey, we can improve the whole eco-system because it is a known fact that when the desistors are involved in the journey of their fellow inmates, they are helping themselves.

39. So, we have built a network whereby not only people who have not been incarcerated before, but even those who have been incarcerated, they have an interest in this, they want to play a part in this. We are seeing many more of them coming forward and they all can play a part.

40. For example, if I go for a preventive outreach upstream work today, more than 50% of those who joined me in this voluntary work are desistors. That shows how we have been developing our society, not only providing platforms for desistors to come and contribute, but also for people to accept them, to give them that beyond second chances and it really, really makes a lot of difference when you see desistors reaching out to tell people, “Don’t offend and don’t reoffend.”, “Come on, join us to enhance the ecosystem.”.

41. Finally, the lower recidivism rate also means that they can spend more time with their friends and family at home, and they can then do more meaningful work. They can bring more goodness to people around them, and we hope this will help to strengthen the families in Singapore.

42. This is what I feel are the improvements in what we have been seeing with the recidivism rates, at the general level, first for the women and now for the RT trainees. It speaks volumes of what we are doing as a society.

43. Nevertheless, we must continue to work hard and sustain it, and continue to strengthen the ecosystem.

Question: Lastly, are there any focus area that the Ministry is looking at to further reduce the recidivism rate?

44. From time to time, we look at issues that we want to prevent from happening or we want to strengthen.

45. These are being carried out at some platforms like the National Committee on Prevention, Rehabilitation and Recidivism (NCPR), as well as some committees within the work that we do at SPS, and at times we collaborate.

46. We have been looking at how we want to reduce intergenerational offending, and also how we can go upstream and do more to prevent offending or to better understand issues relating to drug abuse among youths, so that we can help to stop the flow of drug abusers into the system, and this will open up many opportunities for them.

47. Also, relating to gang-related kind of issues, we want to see how we can better understand and help them.

48. For some of these issues, we want to get a better insight with regards to the phenomenon. So, when we get better insight, we want to see how we can address it – not only provide solutions— but I think more importantly, go upstream to see how we can prevent them from happening.

49. But today is a good news for the youths. We have great opportunities for our youths in Singapore. But even those who got into trouble, who will make the wrong choice, we want to see how that can be tackled, so that they can realise their potential, to the best they can, regardless of their background.