What nobody tells you about Criminal Offending, Youth Offending, Recidivism, Substance Abuse, Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation, Crime Prevention and many more pertaining to Singapore.
MY SKELETONS
ARE Getting OUT.
My husband has gone in and out of prison for multiple offences.
We’ve lost our savings, jobs, house and reputation.
Each time plunged the family into crisis.
We risk losing our children to mental illness, suicide, addiction, negative peer influence, teenage pregnancy and delinquency as youths like them often do.
There's an almost 50% chance I'll lose my husband to prison.
Again.
Getting support has been tough, because nobody likes offenders and their family, even amongst family members.
Ironically, social services too.
Impacts Of High ACEs - Adverse Childhood Experiences.
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High Rates Of Reoffending
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Costly Legal Expenses, Loss of Work & Income, Loss Of Home, Evictions, Slander And Accusations.
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They think what I want is money, when money is the only thing they can provide.
Heavy Stigmatisation, Secondary Stigma Family Deemed Guilty By Association.
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Trauma Of Arrest And Separation Of Loved One, Family Upheavals And Disintegration.
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Complex Trauma Causes Offending Behaviours.
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Normalisation Of Abuse In Asian Society.
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Social services assume what I want is money, when that's the only thing they can provide
They've got no substitute for my dedicated attention to my children which is the best chance to mitigate their ACEs, nor so that I can go to work. Getting a job solves their problem, not mine.
Intergenerational Criminality
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Like what happened to my husband in his youth, which contributed to criminality.
Low Mental Health Awareness.
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Unsustainable Economic Focus
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Social services are mistaken.
They think the mental health of my children can be restored in the span of 2 hours, once every 3 weeks, in a clinic.
Not my dedicated attention to manage their ACEs
Their solution for me is to get a full time job. But this only solves their problem, not mine.
My husband has gone in and out of prison for multiple offences.
We’ve lost our savings, jobs, house and reputation.
Each time plunged the family into crisis.
We risk losing our children to mental illness, suicide, addiction, negative peer influence, teenage pregnancy and delinquency as youths like them often do.
There's an almost 50% chance I'll lose my husband to prison.
Again.
Getting support has been tough, because nobody likes offenders and their family, even amongst family members.
Ironically, social services too.
Impacts Of High ACEs - Adverse Childhood Experiences.
-------------------------------------------------------
High Rates Of Reoffending
-------------------------------------------------------
Costly Legal Expenses, Loss of Work & Income, Loss Of Home, Evictions, Slander And Accusations.
-------------------------------------------------------
They think what I want is money, when money is the only thing they can provide.
Heavy Stigmatisation, Secondary Stigma Family Deemed Guilty By Association.
-------------------------------------------------------
Trauma Of Arrest And Separation Of Loved One, Family Upheavals And Disintegration.
-------------------------------------------------------
Complex Trauma Causes Offending Behaviours.
-------------------------------------------------------
Normalisation Of Abuse In Asian Society.
-------------------------------------------------------
Intergenerational Criminality
-------------------------------------------------------
Like what happened to my husband in his youth, which contributed to criminality.
Low Mental Health Awareness.
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Unsustainable Economic Focus
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The lack of awareness keeps us
When my dedicated attention is my children's best chance at overcoming their complex trauma, social services expect it to be done in a clinic, once every 3 weeks for 2 hours.
When money is the only thing they can provide, they think all I want is money, so their solution of me getting a full time job only solves their problem, not mine.
Social welfare's approach to instil self-sufficiency for my family is lost on me who wouldn't help myself.
Everyone blame our predicament on my husband's offending ways, our flawed decision making and unfit parenting .
Those who've helped us, have given up.
Their efforts go to waste when my husband returns to old ways.
Watching my husband closely to nip his harmful behaviours in the bud, has not worked
And getting out of it begins with his reform.
and our succumbing to their terms - what they deem are best for us.
Family support did not
But... what if they are wrong?
Finding support has been tough, if not fruitless.
Imprisonment did not deter my husband.
Nor did rehabilitation reform him.
Everyone blame our predicament on my husband's offending ways, our flawed decision making and unfit parenting .
Rehabilitation offering counselling, purposeful work and enhancing family ties, have not reformed my husband.
There is no publicly available data to track reoffending after the 5th year.
Reoffending rate increases for custodial vs non-custodial sentences.
Rates Of Reoffending
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Drug Rehabilitation Center appears to produce higher incidences of drug reoffenders than the prison, ironically contradicting its rehabilitation centric purpose.
We need to stop imagining that working only on the offender is the way to rehabilitation when many factors contribute to an outcome.
We need to stop criminalising reoffenders for reoffending when the above two factors are unaddressed.
When almost 50% of the population of releases reoffend. existing methods of reform cannot be said to be effective and that reoffenders are the exception.
PENAL
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About 20% or 1 in 5
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About 40% or 2 in 5
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Year
02
05
DRC
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About 25% or 1 in 4
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About 45% or near 1 in 2
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This is what's going on with regards to prisoners' reform.
Returning to the same conditions that contributed to the past offending increase the likelihood of subsequent offending.
A child in a loving and supportive environment thrives while a cold and disapproving one disrupts proper development.
Same goes for adults.
Doing the same thing again and again will not yield different outcomes.
Environment is greater than willpower.
Offending does not arise on its own, ie. not independently. Many factors contribute and are present in the surroundings, within his environment. Interacting with them on a frequent, daily basis, makes them highly influential in driving his behaviours.
Offending is not merely a matter of personal choice, but influenced by powerful forces.
A NEW
Light On Reoffending.
Taking a new perspective.
Harsh environments create oppositional personalities.
Especially those with great power. A rat has no chance with a cat on its tail, rat poison and rat-trap set up. Humans have no chance in a tsunami.
Harsh environments create oppositional personalities.
Authoritarian environments may yield high compliance but it comes with a similar degree of inner resistance that will express itself in some way
It is not just bad company, peer pressure or lack of self-control.
There are 4 environments offenders are exposed to from the previous offending to the subsequent one.
Under Yellow Ribbon's work program, Work opportunities are scarce as ex-offenders. His past qualifications and achievements are no longer valid. No matter how hard he worked, how much responsibilities he took on, his compensation paled compared to everyone else and Neve properly.
Submitting entirely to an all-powerful entity, offenders are stripped down to the bare minimum, following tight protocols and punished at the slightest mis-step.
Nutrition was non existent. Caterpillars were frequently found in the food and they had to drink from the urinal.
Forced separation and restricted contact with family under such oppressive conditions added to the toil.
Your Questions Answered.
Just as we don't train one soldier to fight an army, directing rehabilitation efforts on just the offender cannot be sufficient for him to overcome the odds that are far greater than him. When he doesn't, he is criminalised.
Offending has multiple contributing factors. Rehabilitation has to be a wholistic endeavour, addressing all of these components.
Exploring The 4 Environments
Social
Experience of the criminal justice system, starting from arrest to the date of release from prison.
Public sentiments give rise to how offenders are treated in all spheres of life, be it at work, home or social settings, As social acceptability can determine the opportunities offered at any level right down to fulfilling of basic needs, its impact is wide-reaching.
The huge power dynamic between offenders and captors gives rise to much negative conditioning.
Custodial
o1
o2
Professional
They change drastically for those with a criminal record.
Livelihood determines one's survivability. The work opportunities and conditions at work have great influence.
o3
Undeniably family is determinative of our level of success or failure in life. Offenders are greatly dependent on their family throughout incarceration and post release, looking to them for necessities and support.
However, their family are also subjected to the previous 3 environments ongoing. return to post prison release and draw support from to start life anew. Many factors come into play here including influences from the other environments, causing much complexity.
o4
Familial
The punishment is not the cure.
One of the main causes of criminal behaviour hardly anyone talks about.
The experience in the grips of the criminal justice system, from point of arrest by law enforcement. It includes remand, imprisonment and after, when placed in the charge of entities associated with the system.
The period in contact with criminal justice from arrest or investigation stage to post release
Social
Public sentiments give rise to how offenders are treated in all spheres of life, be it at work, home or social settings, As social acceptability can determine the opportunities offered at any level right down to fulfilling of basic needs, its impact is wide-reaching.
The material and psychological damage incurred on the family when he was imprisoned, and continuing even after his release, affected their relationships. His need to depend on them for basic needs and moral support as he navigates a world averse to ex-offenders adds to the spoilage.
Families of offenders are also invisible to the justice system that has made become the collateral damage of custodial sentences. Imprisonment is a severe condition that affects not just offenders but their closed ones and in life-changing ways.
When efforts to address this problem has been lacklustre, rehabilitation of offenders is greatly undermined. Fire cannot be curbed with more fire in the environment, because of how much the lives of those within a family intertwine and their close proximity under one roof.
Intergenerational offending.
Does Criminality Run In Families?
A brush with the law impacts not just the offender but the family.
Swept into the current of sudden, shocking changes starting from the arrest of their kin and going on indefinitely, even beyond the end date of the prison term. Where children are involved, the damage goes on impacting more than one generation.
This is the state of their family situation inmates return to post release, to start afresh in life.
Custodial
Does Criminality Run In Families?
Professional
Our savings, jobs, house, and reputation are gone.
Soon, our children too.
When arrested, his life crumbles.
When released from prison, he starts from square one, again, rebuilding his life.
Except it's gotten more challenging.
Despite going to prison, he didn't mend his ways.
My husband's brush with the law plunged us into a state of crisis, followed by devastating events lasting up to this day.
Cycle Of Reoffending
01
02
04
05
It started 15 years ago.
We've lost almost everything.
He is A 3rd timeR.
He's Caught In a Loop.
03
This Is Bigger Than Him.
Despite my watchful eye, he got into trouble.
I watched closer. Still he reoffended.
He reoffends and gets arrested.
The same events and challenges occur.
This is a repeating pattern.
He Will Reoffend, Again.
Unless He Gets Out.
One of the main causes of criminal behaviour hardly anyone talks about.
01
The experience in the grips of the criminal justice system, from point of arrest by law enforcement. It includes remand, imprisonment and after, when placed in the charge of entities associated with the system.
Custodial
Does Prison/DRC Rehabilitate?
The huge power dynamic between an offender and the criminal justice system, made him nearly completely under its will. In
Th
Professional
The period in contact with criminal justice from arrest or investigation stage to post release
Do Offenders Deserve This?
It drew a string of events so devastating, our savings, jobs, house and not to mention, reputation are gone.
Soon, our children too.
His first brush with the law fifteen years ago, plunged us into a state of crisis.
We've lost almost everything.
Despite going to prison, he didn't mend his ways.
Despite my watchful eye, he still got into trouble.
It won't be his last.
He's a 3rd time offender.
I watch him even closer.
What else can I do?
When he is arrested, life crumbles.
When he is released, he starts from square one.
Again.
He cannot get out of this loop.
He goes up against the same challenges at work, in society and at home.
He will reoffend.
Again.
These challenges are deeply entrenched.
They are present in all the environments he is placed in.
It's bigger than him.
One of the main causes of criminal behaviour hardly anyone talks about.
01
The conditions within which work is performed. Usually taken to be in the period after his release from prison but it should start at an earlier date and has various phases.
Professional
Environment
One of the main causes of criminal behaviour hardly anyone talks about.
01
The general attitudes of people toward offenders, which contribute to the conditions within the three other environments as well as impact their level of social capital.
Social
Environment
I am part of the problem.
A brush with the law impacts not just the offender but the family.
Swept into the current of sudden, shocking changes starting from the arrest of their kin and going on indefinitely, even beyond the end date of the prison term. Where children are involved, the damage goes on impacting more than one generation.
This is the state of their family situation inmates return to post release, to start afresh in life.
Custodial
A custodial sentence raises re-offending risk.
No stats exist beyond that.
Whether the principles of sentencing is to deter or rehabilitate, the data suggests these may not be as effective after all
One of the main causes of criminal behaviour hardly anyone talks about.
Family members of offenders pay the price when it's not their crime.
Familial
Professional
Work, is where we spend 1/3rd of life, from where we derive our income to sustain our needs.
What if you have to work longer hours, where rights accrued to normal employees are not relevant to you, subjected to constant distrust, paid at rates below entry level when at senior level?
A criminal record is career death and the start of slavery.
Social
What others think of you is vitally important because all the environments are essentially run by human beings. Whether you get opportunities or not, depends on people.
When your preceding reputation is the worst of every
The profile of offenders in our country is a far cry from that of almost every other country yet
Expecting the lame to walk like abled people before crutches are offered is the best to describe the attitude of social welfare agents towards offenders.
Discriminating
There is more compassion for strays than offenders.
These environments are constantly overlapping, bringing their impacts
The 4 Environments
For every 5 prison releases, within 2 years, returns to prison.
Within 5 years, almost half of all releases will be behind bars again.
01
02
03
Environment is stronger than willpower.
Social Professional
Familial
To date, the focus is largely on social influences upon the ex-offender. However, there are two other areas that have not gotten the attention deserved.
As much as the family environment is the bedrock that is crucial in supporting family members' in their goal achieving process, it is also determinative of their potential for offending.
The professional environment where the ex-offender will spend a large part of his/her day and from which he/she derives his income to sustain his living, cannot be overlooked.
Environments awaiting inmates post prison release.
Impacted by the social and professional environments, and the experience of their kin's brush with the law.
A child placed in a loving and supportive environment will thrive. On the contrary, a disapproving and restrictive environment affects his growth and abilities.
The same goes for adults.
Custodial
Social Professional
Familial
As much as the family environment is the bedrock that is crucial in supporting family members' in their goal achieving process, it is also determinative of their potential for offending.
The professional environment where the ex-offender will spend a large part of his/her day and from which he/she derives his income to sustain his living, cannot be overlooked.
Exploitative practises are condoned and ex-offenders Where most of us have at least an O'levels qualification, skills
There are 4 environments an offender is exposed to that greatly influences in a contractive state, ie. antithetical to thriving.
I'd been doing things to get what I didn't want.
Exposed to the same environments, but expecting a different result is foolishness.
Families of offenders pay the price when it's not their crime.
Each year, nearly
families are affected by a kin's prison admission.
Particularly where a term of imprisonment is imposed, the family experiences an onslaught of debilitating events, giving rise to a sense as if......
They are parents, spouses, children, siblings and anyone whose life closely intertwines with the offender, and will face disruptions as a result.
A brush with the law impacts not just the offender but the family members, bringing about turmoil that begins prior to......
Unlike the prison sentence which has an end date, the damage occurred during the kin's imprisonment upon the family, last beyond it.
The Prelude
Particularly where a term of imprisonment is imposed, the family faces an onslaught of debilitating events, giving rise to a sense of concurrently......
The Sentence
The Aftermath
The impacts of crime and punishment on the families of offenders.
10,000
Truth is, all the environments greatly contribute to reoffending.
Families of offenders are deemed guilty by association.
Stigma
To date, most of what is delved into regarding the family's role in contributing to their kin's offending is their propensity for criminality and anti-social behaviours.
Stigma
Our children just might beat him to offend 1st.
There's little sympathy for offenders. Society wants them to prove they are deserving, before help is extended, even when they are in dire straits. It's like expecting the lame to walk as an able person, before crutches are offered.
Furthermore, the ostracism extends to the immediate family, from social as well as familial circles. Not only does this deprive them of the moral support, in some cases they add onto the troubles the family is already experiencing and they can also bring about additional troubles.
Society has the least compassion towards offenders.
Families of offenders are deemed guilty by association.
People say we've brought these upon ourselves because they occurred as a result of my husband's offending and my choice to stay married to him subjected me to these events.
Our children are not spared from this callous attitude. Parents of friends who knew of their father's incarceration would not let them associate. No more going to each other's houses.
To date, most of what is delved into regarding the family's role in contributing to their kin's offending is their propensity for criminality and anti-social behaviours.
Youths from families with criminality background are times more likely to offend, youngest to youngest increased risk to
There's little sympathy for offenders. Society wants them to prove they are deserving, before help is extended, even when they are in dire straits. It's like expecting the lame to walk as an able person, before crutches are offered.
Our children just might beat him to offending 1st.
times more likely to offend, youngest to offend
Incarceration Earlier Age
More Significant For Daughters
Maternal Incarceration Earlier Age
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