Chapter 4.3: Reformative Training
Center (RTC)
“They may seem like a godsend and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without
any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person
will say or do something to bring the relationship to an
end.
Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must
realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their
work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it
is time to move on.
Some people come into your life
for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may
teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an
unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a
season....
LIFETIME relationships teach
you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a
solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love
the person and put what you have learned to use in all other
relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind
but friendship is clairvoyant.”
What is Reformative Training
Center (RTC)? Franking speaking, I do not even know what does RTC
stand for and anything about RTC before I was sentenced to prison! Till the malay
inmates told me stories about their past in RTC. For your
information:
Under the Young Offenders
Section (YOS), the Court can order residents of Boys’ Home to serve
the remaining of their term in Reformative Training Centre (RTC) as
YOS, if they had breached the Home’s rules. Alternatively, the
Court can order the boys to serve six months in RTC and then
complete their term in the Boys’ Home. Also under this section, the
Juvenile Court can order a young offender to serve a term in RTC as
YOS for a period.
The RTC houses
young male offenders between 14 - 21 years of age who have been
sentenced by the Court to undergo reformative training. It is
recognised that the key to success in the rehabilitation of the
Reformative Trainees (RTs) is a highly individualised form of
institutional training and treatment followed by a period of closed
supervision after their discharge.
The training
consists of two phases. In the first phase, the residential phase,
the trainees have to undergo counselling and compulsory academic
and vocational training. This phase can last between 18 - 36
months, subject to the conduct and progress of the trainees. The
programmes during this phase include counselling, education,
vocational training and religious activities. These programmes are
conducted based on the Housing Unit Management System, which
ensures that each trainee has a Personal Supervisor who serves as a
role model to the trainee under his charge. The Personal Supervisor
looks after the trainee like a big brother or sister providing both
guidance and leadership. The Personal Supervisor will also monitor
the trainees’ welfare and behaviour closely and provide
individualised attention to each
trainee.
RTs who are keen to
pursue academic education are transferred to Kaki Bukit Centre
(Prison School). The school provides a conducive
learning environment for trainees to rehabilitate themselves
through learning of skills and knowledge that will prepare them to
re-integrate into the society. The school offers academic courses
in BEST (Basic Education for Skills Training), WISE (Worker
Improvement through Secondary Education), GCE “N”, “O” and “A”
Levels and vocational training in electronics at NITEC (National
Institute of Technical Education Certificate) Intermediate Level.
The trainees in Prison School also undergo the Lifeskills
Programme, Specialised Treatment Programme, Family Involvement
Programme and Community Re-integration
Programme.
After the residential phase, the trainees will be
released under supervision. At this stage, the aim is to provide
the trainees with supervised aftercare so as to facilitate their
re-integration into society. The trainees will be expected to work
or study and perform community work while under the care and
supervision of Prisons Aftercare Officers.
The Changi Women Prison/DRC houses all categories for
female prisoners and drug addicts, including female Reformative
Trainees. It is the only female institution in Singapore. Inmates
are allowed to attend religious classes, education and vocation
training. Some courses conducted include IT training, hairdressing
and embroidery. There are also parenting workshops, group and
individual counselling and a Play and Wait programme catered for
the children of female inmates.
Reformative training
routine:
AFTER the first
month, reformative trainees settle into a daily routine that looks
something like this:
6am: Day starts.
Morning:
After breakfast, they attend
programmes tailored to their needs that include studies, art
therapy and religious counselling.
Noon to 1pm:
Lunch
Afternoon:
Counselling, studies and yard
time.
Before 6pm:
Dinner
9pm: Lights out
Since last October,
reformative training has gone one step further in rigour: All
newcomers now have to spend their first two weeks in solitude so
that they can think about where they went
wrong.
This reflection is done
in a cell about the size of two ping-pong tables. Trainees are let
out only for morning foot drills in an indoor yard and interviews
with psychologists and reform centre
supervisors.
Up until the change,
three or four new inmates would be housed in a cell from Day
1.
The impact of the change
remains to be seen.
The two-week isolation
period can be seen as a form of early conditioning for the
regimented life that lies ahead for youths who fall afoul of the
law.
The court considers
reformative training for those between 14 and 21 after weighing
factors that include the youth's character, past conduct, home
environment and the circumstances under which the offence was
committed.
A youth who lacks
self-discipline, has no regard for law and authority and is beyond
his parents' control may be considered more suitable for
reformative training than probation.
A handful of wayward
girls were on the reformative training programme at the Changi
Women's Prison, while others were on it at the prison school in
Kaki Bukit, where they were working towards their O- or A-level
examinations.
The offences these
trainees commit while undergoing reformative training have jumped
35 per cent in the past three years, estimated that new trainees
were the culprits in six out of 10 offences at the RTC. Absolute
figures were unavailable.
While fights and assaults
have taken place, the infringements are often minor. They include a
persistent failure to keep their hands behind their backs while
talking to officers and straying from a single file while on the
move within the RTC.
The two weeks in solitary
confinement are expected to improve
discipline.
It seems to have worked
for at least one RTC inmate. The 20-year-old final-year polytechnic
student, who was sent there last December for smoking cannabis,
found himself hunkering down to some serious thinking in his
cell.
He said: 'It took me a
few days, but I literally sat in a corner and started
thinking.
'I felt all kinds of
emotions, but I realised there was no one to be angry at but
myself.
'My conclusion so far: I
have hurt my family by coming in here. I should keep on the right
track and not do anything that only benefits
myself.'
Although he is now
determined to make the best of his time at the RTC, life there was
tough in the first few days.
'Outside, I had
everything I wanted. Family, bed, air-conditioning. Here, it is
just four walls,' he said.
Here’s another real life story from
one of my readers (no editing had been
done):
“Hi!
Thanks for sharing your post.
Prison life is not cool at all.
I was charged in the juvenile
court just before I was 16, for possession of firecrackers, which
was meant to be sold for extra money. A friend of mine released one
and some one complained, the police came to do a spot check and I
was taken in after they found a "thunderclap" in my
possession.
My story is nothing compared to
what you and many of the inmates went through, but then for a 15
year old, the night in the police station lockup at Ang Mo Kio
police station, was a night to remember for me. There's a small
wooden plank for you to lie on, and there were 4 persons including
me inside the lockup. I remembered it being a little stuffy in
there and the cell was lighted by fluorescent tube. Like what
happened in your story, the few of us shared about what caused us
to end up being there. I can only remember one of thee suspect's
story, he was actually looking through a pile of discarded items
and actually picked up a plank when the police came, there was an
attempted robbery in the nearby area and he was immediately a
suspect.
I remember the police officer
who tried to take my thumb print, an indian lady, who was very
rough in handling me, i tensed up, she noticed then said, relax and
stopped handing me like i'm a convict.
The i/o was a funny man, big,
burly sized, speaks in english with a mixture of hokkien, took my
statement, then said, "this one is nothing la, you at the most
kenna ps for 1 year only"
I still remembered the day when
I was sent to the court, I shared the van with a man who was about
40 years old and handcuffed, poor guy was like tossing around when
the van has sudden movements, hard braking and sprint from red
lights, and I had to hold on to him to support him. I wasn't
handcuffed as the police sees me as a harmless teenager? The
interesting thing about the lockup inside the subordinate court is
that it is air conditioned there was an indian national whose
offence was not known as he's not able to communicate in english
and a 22 year old chinese guy sharing the cell with me, the chinese
guy's offence was attacking his mother's employer for the unfair
treatment given to his mother the guy was a triad member. In the
lockup, interestingly, every triad member are 1, like brothers in
arms, scribbled in the walls of the holding room are words left by
former triad members wishing their "brothers" good luck in getting
out.
That's basically what I
remembered about my experience being held in the court holding area
before the hearing and I remembered also, the courtroom, when I
stepped in, there was a lot of eyes looking at me, the hearing was
fast, less than 10 mins and I was whisked away back to the holding
room. 24 years has passed by, and I've never shared this with
anyone in this forum.
I did end up at the boys home,
or get the probation as recommended by the i/o, instead my parents
was slapped with a fine for my offense, which was totally
unexpected, my parents didn't have the money to pay and my dad went
out to borrow the money to pay, even the i/o recommended a 2 years
maximum probation for me.
After reading your post, make
me recalled back how much i had hurt my parents and they still show
care n concern till now even though I very rude to them and rather
spend more time with friends than with them when i was still a
teenager. Y am i so stubborn and so stupid that time. If I had not
listened to my friend, all this will never happened. I so regret
what I had did to my parents when i was young.
By reading your story had
influences me and because of you, I decided to share my past now,
hopefully to prevent the young readers not to followed my
footstep.
Thank you!”
Although I myself had never been to
RTC, I have learnt so much about the life in RTC through inmates,
readers, and online. All I can say to the young brothers whom are
reading my story now: “ Better don’t try anything funny that can
end you up in RTC as life in RTC is much more tougher than in
Prison!”
We proceed back to our cell room
after yard and we were being locked up in the our cell room till
next day... It’s the day which we will have our ‘DAYROOM’ activity
in the morning!
Chapter 4.4: The 'AWOL'
inmate I known at ‘DAYROOM’
To be
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