Measures to Rehabilitate and Protect At-risk Individuals and Offenders

2 Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether he can provide an update on measures taken to rehabilitate and protect at-risk individuals and offenders to transform their lives and the results to date.

The Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Desmond Lee): Mr Speaker, the Government adopts a range of measures to support at-risk youths and youth offenders.

First, we intervene upstream to address risk factors before offences are committed.

In 2012, MSF appointed two Social Service Agencies to run "Youth GO!". Under Youth GO!, youth workers would conduct street outreach to engage at-risk youths and sometimes, it could be even late at night. Youth GO! workers reach out to around 300 youths each month and engage them in structured activities, which reduces risky behaviours and improves their relationships and life skills.

MSF works closely with MOE to provide the Enhanced STEP-UP (ESU) programme, benefiting more than 600 youths each year. This programme supports youths who are at risk of dropping out and those who have left school, so that they can continue their education or acquire vocational skills for employment.

MSF is also working with our partners to pilot a Localised Community Network (LCN) in Jurong West, to improve the coordination between various partners and provide more seamless support to the youths and their families. If this pilot works out, we can look to expand it. So, that is first – upstream.

Second, we divert youth offenders away from the criminal justice system as far as possible.

MSF appointed nine social service agencies to be what we call "Integrated Service Providers" or ISPs, which support youth offenders diverted away from the criminal justice system. ISPs run programmes to address offending behaviours and have worked with around 900 youths and families so far. On average, more than 80% of the youths satisfactorily complete their programmes. Arrests of youths aged between seven and 19 years old have fallen from around 3,100 in 2014 to 2,700 in 2018, a decrease of 13%.

Third, we prioritise community-based interventions to involve families and minimise disruption to the youth's development.

Such interventions include probation and rehabilitation outside of residential facilities. MSF employs a family-focused approach to address the root causes of youth offending, such as weak family support. The average three-year recidivism rate of probationers aged below 16 years old has fallen. A 19.5% recidivism rate for cases closed from 2007 to 2009, improved to 12.5% for cases closed from 2010 to 2014.

MSF's Youth Homes run programmes to build our youths’ character and life-skills. Formal education is a key component as well, and the majority of those who sit for national examinations such as the GCE "N" and "O" Levels, attain passes above the national average.

Fourth, we sustain rehabilitative outcomes to better re-integrate children with their families and society.

We announced during the Committee of Supply this year that we are extending the period of post-care support in Youth Homes from two months to one year. The longer duration helps youths to sustain good habits and skills acquired during their residence and encourages them to continue their academic or vocational training. The Singapore Prison Service adopts a similar approach for youth offenders in prison, by staging support from the point of imprisonment, to their release and reintegration back into the community.

In addition, labelling someone as an ex-offender makes reintegration more difficult for him or her. Hence, our recent amendments to the Children and Young Persons Act or CYPA have also included enhancing the protection of youth offenders' identity and privacy.

The Government is committed to protecting and supporting youth-at-risk and youth offenders. This is a continuous work-in-progress. MSF will continue to work closely with other Ministries and our community partners to steer at-risk youths away from negative behaviours and provide rehabilitative and post-care initiatives to break the cycle of offending.

Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade): I thank the Minister for the comprehensive answer. Indeed, I am very encouraged by the good progress that he has reported. I would like to ask one supplementary question, which is beyond all the efforts taken – both upstream and downstream – and attempts to re-integrate these at-risk individuals with their families and into society, I would like to ask what efforts are being made, in particular, for them once they are able to get into the job market. What efforts are there that are made to help them find suitable jobs? At the same time, are there any schemes which would allow employers to also be encouraged or incentivised to take on-board these individuals?

Mr Desmond Lee: I thank the Member for his interest in ensuring that beyond the formal framework of supporting youth offenders in the institutions and in the one-year period immediately post discharge, what more are we doing. Sometime ago, we ran a pilot, working with the employment agencies in Government to provide a framework to help at-risk youths and youth offenders re-integrate into the workforce, and to help address any concerns that they may have in doing so. At the conclusion of the pilot, that effort was merged into the mainstream WSG framework so that employment agencies working with WSG are empowered to provide better support to at-risk youths and youth offenders.

We continue to keep a close eye on that front. With the support of the various social service agencies in the community, we will partner and look out for youths who start to struggle, even as they attempt to re-integrate back into society and back into the workforce. We would, of course, be very happy if the Member representing the enterprises that he does, is prepared to partner us in some future point in time, to continue this work of partnership to better enable youth offenders to find their place back in society.