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New scheme to address social issues behind crime laudable, but devil is in the details

The government has announced a pilot scheme for trained personnel from the social services sector to work with police officers to spot and address underlying social issues that may have led to crime, like medical conditions, financial challenges or other family problems. Philosophically, this is a laudable vision, but observers have highlighted several challenges that need to be addressed.

The Singapore Prison Service has consistently attributed the low and stable recidivism rates here — hovering around 26 per cent between 2013 and 2015 — to strong participation and completion rates in community-based programmes.

The Singapore Prison Service has consistently attributed the low and stable recidivism rates here — hovering around 26 per cent between 2013 and 2015 — to strong participation and completion rates in community-based programmes.

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During the Budget debate last month, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam announced a scheme to tackle the root causes of crime that “may not be adequately resolved via just a prosecutorial approach”.

To be piloted later this year, this initiative envisions trained personnel from the social services sector working with police officers — at the investigations stage — to spot and address underlying social issues that may have led to crime, like medical conditions, financial challenges or other family problems.

Philosophically, this is a laudable vision that furthers ongoing efforts in enhancing the Republic’s criminal rehabilitation framework.

Practitioners in the legal and social services have also called this a “promising” move that could curb recidivism, where ex-offenders are predisposed to re-offending because of socio-economic pressures and challenging home environments.

Lawyer and parliamentarian Murali Pillai, for instance, had repeatedly called for the House to strengthen rehabilitation regimes for youthful offenders and those with  psychiatric conditions who have committed crimes assessed to be less serious and are thus not charged in court.

These individuals are currently given “stern warnings” in lieu of prosecution.

While such warnings do not carry a fine or jail sentence, the recipients also then will not have access to treatment and rehabilitation, making them more susceptible to re-offending, and eventually being charged.

Though not devised in lieu of prosecution, the forthcoming scheme — dubbed the Home Team Community Assistance and Referral Scheme, or HT Cares — seeks to address social determinants of crime early in the crime-solving process, even before the offenders are taken to court, thus plugging a gap within a framework that currently focuses on post-sentencing rehabilitation.

While this sounds good on paper, how successful it will actually be is far from clear.

Details on how it will be implemented are still being worked out by the police and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) but observers have highlighted several challenges that need to be addressed.

In a half-page handout on the scheme extended to the media before the announcement, the authorities said that welfare officers will be stationed at police divisional headquarters to render prompt help, where needed.

Among other things, these officers - contracted staff from voluntary welfare organisations that have yet been identified - will be tasked to spot criminogenic social needs, refer offenders and alleged offenders to relevant social services, and ensure follow-ups in addressing these needs.

To ensure effectiveness, much manpower and resources must be set aside for this scheme so that the underlying issues can be adequately addressed.

The welfare officers must also be well-trained to pick up some of the more complex cases and work with multiple stakeholders, such as the offenders’ family members.

This could be a challenge, given the starved stable of social workers in Singapore.

According to MSF, the sector had about 15,000 workers at the end of last year and will need about 1,000 more by next year.

A number of government agencies and voluntary welfare organisations already support the incarcerated, ex-offenders, and their families in various ways.

The Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises, for instance, is a statutory board established in 1976 to help enhance the employability of inmates.

The Community Justice Centre (CJC), a non-profit organisation, has for the past five years been lending a hand to litigants who are unrepresented, face financial difficulties, or wrestle with psychological distress.

The forthcoming scheme can complement existing outfits by identifying areas of need early —  along the “upstream” of the crime-solving process, in the words of CJC executive director Leonard Lee.

But this would entail the police officers being good “gatekeepers” who can spot these needs promptly and accurately, Mr Lee said.

President of the Association of Criminal Lawyers Sunil Sudheesan called for a mindset change in law enforcement agencies, including the police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Home Team officers on the ground must come to embrace and accept that criminality has far greater social and psychiatric causes, he stressed, in order for referrals to be made promptly and appropriately.

On the other hand, some social workers also noted the need for safeguards to ensure that social services rendered via the scheme are not abused.

This is crucial, given the need to ensure optimal allocation of resources.

A FUTURE MODEL

The criminal justice system here has been revamped and enhanced several times to introduce more flexibility in the law. In particular, there has been a growing recognition of psychiatric conditions which lead to criminal or anti-social behaviour.

Sweeping amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code in 2010, for instance, introduced a variety of “community-based sentencing options” for minor offences.

Following these amendments, offenders with psychiatric conditions may be given mandatory treatment orders in lieu of traditional punishments of fines, imprisonments and caning.

The most recent round of changes to the community sentencing regime passed last month also provides more opportunities for those who are not habitual offenders to be rehabilitated in the community, such as through community service orders and day reporting orders.

The Singapore Prison Service has consistently attributed the low and stable recidivism rates here — hovering around 26 per cent between 2013 and 2015 — to strong participation and completion rates in community-based programmes.

Non-profit organisations also has a role to play in weeding out crime. Although the causal impact of such organisations on criminal incidence here has not been empirically documented, American sociologist Patrick Sharkey has found community non-profits to be a “critical and underappreciated” piece in the United States’ crime-busting arsenal.

Using data gathered from crime reports, censuses and community surveys over two decades, Mr Sharkey, who is based at the New York University’s Robert F Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, found that in a typical city with 100,000 people, each additional non-profit devoted to confronting violence led to a roughly 1 per cent decline in the city’s murder rate.

If Singapore were to take a leaf from these findings, then a scheme like HT Cares — which envisages a close partnership between police departments and the social sector — could be a new model and logical next stage in the Republic’s effort for combating crime.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kelly Ng is a senior reporter with TODAY who covers security, health, environment and legal issues.

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