PERSONS IMPRISONED OR DETAINED (Annual statistics)

PERSONS IMPRISONED OR DETAINED

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(Annual statistics): **

1.

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang asked the Minister for Home Affairs if he will publish annual statistics on the number of persons imprisoned or detained, by type of institution, type of detention, gender, age group and nationality.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: The Singapore Prisons Department has been publishing statistics relating to offenders in its Prisons Annual Reports. In fact, some of the statistics which Prof. Ivan Png has highlighted, such as a breakdown of offenders by detention and gender can be found in the Annual Reports. These reports, which contain statistics on our penal institutions' and Drug Rehabilitation Centres' average daily population, admissions as well as population breakdown by gender, are widely distributed to the Department's strategic partners and official visitors. They are also available in the Parliament library and the libraries of our tertiary institutions. I have asked Prisons Department to make them more accessible to the public.

Details of offenders by age and nationality are currently not disclosed annually as a matter of course. However, Prisons Department has released these statistics on a request basis. I have also asked Prisons Department to consider making more information available in its Annual Report.

As for the breakdown of offenders by institutions, for security reasons, it is better for such statistics not to be disclosed.

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