EXISTING STRUCTURES.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development has adopted two approaches in the rehabilitation of young offenders, namely community-based rehabilitation and institutional rehabilitation.
Institutional rehabilitation is sending young offenders to Youth Homes like the Singapore Boys’ Home and Singapore Girls’ Home. It essentially is the Juvenile Rehabilitation Order (JRO) which is imposed by the Youth Court. JRO is given for serious crimes like causing grievous hurt.
It is used to emphasise deterrence, in hopes that the youth offenders will mend their ways and not commit an offence again. For the Juvenile Rehabilitation Order, the Court can order the offender to be sent to a juvenile rehabilitation centre for a period not exceeding three years.
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Though institutional rehabilitation serves as a strong deterrent for youth offenders, it may act against its intended effect. In institutional rehabilitation, youth offenders mingle and interact with other fellow offenders. As mentioned, the Juvenile Rehabilitation Order is issued to offenders who commit crimes of a higher degree of criminality. This suggests that the Youth Homes houses offenders who display more delinquent behaviours and have a higher risk of re-offending.
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The nature of the Youth Homes may expose young offenders to the negative company which could disrupt their rehabilitation process and increase their possibility of re-offending. In addition, when in such institutions, young persons have lesser contact with their family and friends. This weakens the social support network they have. Youth offenders are isolated from their family and society. This may cause them to feel lonely and frustrated about their situation, therefore, they may revert back to their old ways and do things that grant them happiness and comfort, which may include consumption of drugs and associating with bad company.
In addition, there is post-care support to aid youth offenders in Youth Homes to re-integrate into society. This was originally set at two months and is expected to be extended to a year. During post-care support, officers conduct periodical checks on former residents. This is to ensure that these young persons are able to stay disciplined and assimilate into society.
Some former residents find it difficult to approach people they trust for assistance (Wong, 2019). Therefore, having an authority figure like a post-care officer would be helpful for youth offenders. However, this extension may still be insufficient for some young offenders who require extra help and support, especially if they lack the resources to seek help. This is evidently displayed in the statistics which shows that 44.6% of youths at MSF Youth Homes re-offend within 3 years after release (Ministry of Social and Family Development. n.d.).