CRIME AND RECIDIVISM RATES BETWEEN 2005 AND 2008

CRIME AND RECIDIVISM RATES BETWEEN 2005 AND 2008: 6.

Mr Christopher de Souza:

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Home Affairs what is the incidence of (i) offences against persons; (ii) offences against property; and (iii) drug offences, for the period 2008 to the present as compared to the period of 2005 to 2008.

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Home Affairs what are the recidivism rates for (i) offences against persons; (ii) offences against property; and (iii) drug offences for the period from 2008 to the present as compared to the period of 2005 to 2008.

The Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs (Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M) (for the Minister for Home Affairs): Mr Speaker, can I take Question Nos. 6 and 7 together? ****

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Mr Christopher de Souza has asked for the incidence and recidivism rates for offences against persons, offences against property, and drug offences. These rates are requested for the period 2008 to the present as compared to the period of 2005 to end of 2007.

Comparing the two periods, both incidences of offences against persons

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and property offences have decreased. From 2005 to 2007, the incidence of offences against persons averaged about 97 per 100,000 population, and this decreased to 91 per 100,000 from 2008 to September 2010. The incidence of offences against property also decreased from an average of 602 per 100,000 population for the period 2005 to 2007, compared to 508 per 100,000 population for 2008 to September 2010.

The number of drug abusers arrested in recent years has gone down compared to the 2005 to 2007 period. The number of drug abusers arrested increased from 793 in 2005 to 2,211 in 2007.

Since 2008,the number of abusers arrested has stabilised. One thousand, nine hundred and twenty-five abusers were arrested in 2008, 1,883 in 2009, and 1,328 in the first nine months of this year.

Prison measures the recidivism rate as a percentage of local inmates who were released in any particular year and who were subsequently convicted and imprisoned again for a new offence within two years following their release. We are only able to compare the recidivism rate for the period of 2005 to 2007 since the tracking period for the 2008 release cohort will only be completed at the end of this year.

Singapore’s recidivism rate has declined over the years from about 44.4% for the cohort released in 1998 to an all-time low of about 23.7% for the cohort released in 2004. Although the recidivism rate has since increased slightly to about 26.5% for the cohort released in 2007, this is still low by international standards. We think it will hover around that rate.

The recidivism rates for ex-offenders who committed crimes against persons, property offences and drug offences had increased for the cohorts released in 2005 to 2007. The recidivism rates for those who committed crimes against persons rose from 18.3% to 21.1%, while that of

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property offenders rose from 37.5% to 39.1%. The recidivism rate for drug offenders increased from 21.6% to 25.5% for 2005 to 2007.

Singapore has managed to achieve these results because of our tough laws and the efforts of each and every member of the Home Team. In addition, we have enjoyed strong support from the public. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on developing and grooming our officers to be ready for future challenges, and deepening our engagement with community partners and members of the public.

The recommendations of the recent Committee on the prevention of re-offending, which I chaired, point to the need for the community to provide aftercare support for ex-prisoners. Studies and experience in many countries point to the need for a strong collaboration between the authorities and the community to better ensure that ex-prisoners integrate into the community and that their rehabilitation needs such as for employment, positive social peers and other forms of support are met.

Mr Christopher de Souza: Thank you, Minister of State for your replies. There were a lot of statistics, but I think I am correct to say that the incidence of drug offences increased from 500 in 2005 to about 1,900 in 2008. There seems to be quite a large spike over three years. My question coming out of that spike is: would MHA consider attempting to track the soft drugs that are not yet listed in the Misused of Drugs Act (MDA), for example, the Subutex case, before it was classified. Try to get those drugs in the schedule of the MDA early, so that the drug offenders do not move up the ladder to more serious drugs. I think that would be one way of nipping it in the bud.

The second point is about the recidivism rate. The recidivism rate has

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increased from 18.3% to 21.1%, 37.5% to 39.5% and 21.6% to 25.5% on all three categories of offences being offences against persons, properties and drug offences. Would that be because our population has increased or that we have not got these people in jobs earlier enough after release? If it is the second reason, could we do more to get the inmates who are released in jobs early or earlier?

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Mr Speaker, we agree with the Member that looking out for new drugs that will threaten our community is one of the initiatives that keeps the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) on its toes, to make sure that these drugs do not come in the community before it becomes a menace. In the early 1990s, we focused on tackling the growth of heroin. After introducing a comprehensive anti-drugs strategy in 1994, we saw the drug situation in Singapore drastically improved.

But now and over time, we see that psychotropic drugs, as Mr Christopher de Souza mentioned, have begun to surface as one of the emerging threats in Singapore. But we must continue with our anti-drugs control and not succumb to international pressures to allow other forms of drugs reduction – what they call harm reduction in Europe and US, where they give needles to people who are drug abusers. They look at this situation as a health issue rather than a social menace. Therefore, we will continue to look at the threats of heroin and other psychotropic drugs. Moving forward, we will continue to keep abreast of the developments, examining the measures and see what we can do to ensure that, not only do we re-classify these drugs as drugs we ban from Singapore as a drug subject to abuse, but to also to ensure that our students, children and youths continue to be educated to stay away from drugs.

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On the issue of rehabilitation and recidivism, our Committee that concluded quite recently discovered that the issue of offenders re-offending is actually quite a complex issue. Indeed, for many of them, the situations they face when they leave the prison are very complex. To that extent, the Yellow Ribbon programme called for the community to support them, to open the second prison. While they have finished their sentence, they actually have to confront new challenges when they come out to the community. Therefore, among other things, the Committee on the Prevention of Re-offending (CPR) has looked at how the community can help the prisons and the authorities to reduce recidivism rate, to give better scaffolding for ex-offenders depending on the degree of risk of re-offending.

For those who have very high risk of re-offending, we provide case management framework for them which is overseen by Singapore After-Care Association (SACA) as well as Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association (SANA). In addition to that, the Committee also recommended that they go down to the locality, so that these offenders are not only given support for their individual needs, they are also given support to re-integrate better with their families. The case management support for this group of offenders require the case managers to work with the local Family Service Centres (FSCs) so that in the first few months after their integration to the community, they are well integrated and can settle down.

For those who are at lower risk of re-offending, SACA and SANA, together with MHA, have started to recruit volunteers to start what we call a "befriending service". Six months before they are released from prison, volunteers will start to write to these prisoners, with their consent, so that they can start to visit, write letters, befriend them and continue to be their friend after their

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release from prison. We are also concerned about the families. Since the recommendations have been put up, we are now piloting family outreach, piloted by our Member, Mr Maliki Osman in Admiralty. We asked the inmates for permission for the grassroot leaders to approach their families, and then provide scaffolding care for their families to look out for the support that they need in terms of financing, housing, children's schooling and so forth, so that they do not fall into dysfunctionality when their spouses are in prison.

For those who are highly dysfunctional, we also tap on agencies like MENDAKI, which provides wrap-around care. They have piloted some successful family cases where the families are brought from the brink of dysfunctionality back into functioning within the society.

We must also look at other upstream issues that affect our community and somehow get them into offending. As the Minister for Home Affairs has announced just now, part of the recommendations of CPR is the formation of the Central Youth Guidance Office (CYGO) under MCYS, which should look at various initiatives by various Ministries, so that they are streamlined, co-ordinated and no gaps in between them, so that all youths upstream can access the services that youths should get. For youths who are in school, they get the kind of the services and support they want. But there are also youths who are out of school or in the transition of being out of school whom I think we need to fill the gap for. CYGO will, among other things, be looking at these issues.

Mr Christopher de Souza: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Minister of State had mentioned the handing out of needles and that is a route that we should not go down. I totally agree. I was not suggesting that we would go down that route. But on the issue of targeting the

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soft drugs which are not yet scheduled in the MDA, would MHA work on trying to clamp down on clinics that dispense these sorts of drugs very freely, such as codeine and anti-insomnia drugs, so that we do not allow those soft users to eventually trump up into hard abusers.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: We certainly share the concern of the Member and we will continue to look at the situation and monitor it. If we should re-classify all these drugs that should be prescribed for specific use and not for abuse, we will certainly take action on that.