Reasons for Not Disclosing Racial Composition of Prison Inmate Population and Criminal Offender Figures

The following question stood in the name of Mr Christopher de Souza –

38 To ask the Minister for Home Affairs what are the reasons for not publicly disclosing the figures on the racial composition of the prison inmate population and criminal offenders.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast): Question No 38.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr K Shanmugam): Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Member for the question. In all these matters of public disclosure, for that matter, any other Government action, any decision by the Government has to be guided by what is in the public interest and that includes assessing what information should be made public.

And, really, we do not take an ideological position on these matters. So, in certain respects, releasing data can adversely impact the community and society and this particular question relates to one such example.

The fact is minorities are disproportionately represented in the prison inmate population and in crime statistics. The Government has been careful about publicly releasing such data with the racial breakdown, because it might deepen racial stereotypes. I say "deepen", specifically because it is not as if these stereotypes do not exist. They exist. Our concern is releasing the data would deepen those stereotypes.

So, if Government were to release data on racial composition of our prison inmate population and criminal offenders on a regular basis, we really risk hardening the stereotypes. Over time, the concern is that that will undermine our efforts in building harmonious relations amongst all the races and, really, will make it harder for us to achieve racial harmony.

This is not to say that the Government does not release any race-based statistics at all. We have done so in our population census, which includes key indicators broken down by ethnicity, like resident population, marriage and fertility, education, home ownership and religion. Through the M³ network, the initiative by Minister Masagos, we have also released specific statistics on the Malay community, like the number of Malay graduates from Institutes of Higher Learning, the number of Malay professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) and the recidivism rate of the Malay inmate population. The Government also releases race-based statistics on drug and inhalant abuse through CNB’s annual reports.

Why do we, for example, release those statistics? We do so to effectively mobilise the communities into action. By working with the community, we are then able to come up with interventions that are better suited for different communities.

While I deal with this, I should also say that the Malay and Indian communities have seen improvements in terms of educational attainment and literacy rates over the last decade. The Malay community has made significant progress: the number of Malay university graduates has doubled and the proportion of Malays working as PMETs has also increased.

Going back to the point on releasing data on drug and inhalant abuse and whether this could lead to stereotyping, the answer is yes. But this is where judgement comes in. Our assessment is that in these cases, the upside of spurring the community to take action outweighs the negative of potentially deepening the stereotypes. We consider the implications on each community and proceed based on judgement and assessment.

Let me share some examples. The Dadah Itu Haram campaign and the Malay-Muslim Organisations (MMO) Rehabilitation Network are examples of how the Government was able to partner the Malay community to join hands with CNB and Singapore Prison Service (SPS) to combat drug abuse and prevent reoffending. We have seen positive results with our efforts.

In some other instances, the judgment lies in not releasing the data. The Government has on these considerations taken the approach not to release race-based statistics for prison inmate population and criminal offenders. Sir, with your permission, may I display some slides on the screens?

Mr Deputy Speaker: Please do. [Slides were shown to hon Members.]

Mr K Shanmugam: Annex 1 sets out the list of stakeholders we engaged with. We specifically went and asked the various community organisations on their views on releasing such information: race-based statistics on criminal offenders and inmate population. It is a very substantial list.

We consulted many different groups and community leaders, sought their views. The unanimous view – and I underline "unanimous view" – was that it would not benefit our community and Singapore’s society. And it would encourage stereotypes and harm community relations. Some of their comments I have asked to be reproduced for Members’ reference. Sir, Annex 2.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Yes, please.

Mr K Shanmugam: Members can cast their eyes over the slide. It may be too simplistic to share these race-based statistics as the reality is more complex. Another commented, "It is not good to publicise such statistics, no matter which community is involved." Members can see the different comments.

Overall, the community leaders were clear. They said you should not simply look at the racial breakdown. It would not take into account other contributing factors which could have led to a person committing a crime. It would also detract from the improvements made by the respective communities. And we take these views quite seriously. Overall, they agreed that the race-based inmate and crime statistics should continue to be shared in closed-door settings with community leaders and groups, so that we can address the issues as a community.

It is the Government's as well as the community leaders’ considered assessment that race-based inmate and offender statistics should not be released. We will continue our current approach of disclosing such information on a selective basis, where doing so would be useful and positive for the community and society. If any Member has a different view, having heard the views of the community leaders, you are welcome to explain why.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Alex Yam.

Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee): I thank the Minister for that explanation. I completely agree with the stance of MHA. Could the Minister share with the House how do specific communities work behind the scenes, perhaps in the prisons, to address some of these issues?

Mr K Shanmugam: The Prisons, and MHA as a whole, mobilises large number of volunteers to work with our prison inmates. For Prisons, the tagline is "Captains of Lives" because we no longer look at prison as a place where we just guard people. We want to make a distinct difference to their lives such that when they come out, they can actually reintegrate back into society. That involves a number of different approaches: one, assess them when they come in into different risk categories, decide what kind of rehabilitative approach would be best suited for them and, of course, all of this applies only if they stay for some time in prisons; those in there for a few months may not benefit from these approaches.

Then, there are different programmes depending on whether they are in an early stage of incarceration, middle stage or late stage. It does not end there. We got to try and handhold them after they leave prison: we find them jobs, try and encourage them to keep their jobs and give other kinds of interventions. And those with family support, those who have other kinds of community support including religious support, we find that the recidivism rates are generally lower.

So, what is necessary also beyond prisons officers, MHA officers and civil servants doing it is a substantial community support when they are in prison and when they are out of prison. So, in prison, for example, if you take the different communities, on a non-religious based approach, we have a wide variety of volunteers. But, of course, many religious groups also come in and offer their services and we find that they actually make a big difference. And we mobilise them. We are generally quite careful about having people of one religion going into the Prisons and talk to persons of another religion, unless there is clear consent, because MHA needs to be careful about these issues.

And Members would have heard of the very substantial initiative in the Malay community where the mosques, MUIS, community organisations, Pergas, various organisations have come together, together with the Malay Members of Parliament and office holders to increase the number of volunteers. The number of volunteers has increased substantially. They go in there, there is intervention with religious education, there is intervention with social skills. So, that is one example.

The churches play an extremely active role in helping inmates, both when they are in and when they are out.

So, we have a lot of people who are, what I would call, true activists. They want to make a difference to people's lives.

3.00 pm

Mr Deputy Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. Clarification, Dr Koh Poh Koon.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix, unless Members had asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn.]