Arrested Juveniles Admitted into Juvenile Homes

33 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Social and Family Development in each of the past three years (a) how many of arrested juveniles have been ordered by the Courts to be admitted into juvenile homes as defined in the Children and Young Persons Act; and (b) how many of such juvenile offenders admitted into these homes have at least one parent who is incarcerated or has been incarcerated before.

Mr Desmond Lee: Under the Children and Young Persons Act, juveniles who commit offences may be ordered by the Youth Court to be sent to a Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre or a Place of Detention. Those sent to a Place of Detention are typically also placed on probation.

The Singapore Boys' Home (SBH) and Singapore Girls' Home (SGH) serve both functions. The number of juvenile offenders admitted to SBH and SGH each year is as shown in Table 1 below.

About two-fifths of the juvenile offenders in SBH and SGH have a family member who had been incarcerated before.