The Rehabilitation Framework

By the time the Prison School opened its doors, the rehabilitation framework had been largely developed. Being the central plank of my original agenda, I could not wait for the visioning process to be completed before developing ideas about how to carry out rehabilitation. In fact, some work had been done by my predecessor Mr Poh Geok Ek. Although there was no R&P (Research and Planning branch) then, Mr Poh had assigned a few staff officers to conduct a thorough search of the literature on the topic of rehabilitation of offenders prior to proposing the setting up of a rehabilitation division to the Ministry. Thus, the organisation had been up to speed on the theoretical aspects of such a venture. However, since there was a lack of practical experience, the Ministry had refused to channel resources into something which they regarded as uncertain and unproven in the Asian context. I knew that I had to start experimenting on our own steam without asking for additional resources, at least initially. Frankly, at that point in time, I was unconvinced myself and I needed to have a first-hand look at a correctional system that had successfully carried out rehabilitation. So in May 1999, I led a team to the United Kingdom and Canada to study their respective rehabilitation systems.