Singapore Prison Service Family Partners’ Day 2023

Singapore Prison Service Family Partners’ Day 2023

1 June 2023 - The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) held the inaugural SPS Family Partners’ Day at the Lifelong Learning Institute today. Attended by more than 150 stakeholders and community partners, including social service agencies and self-help groups, the event was graced by Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs & Ministry of National Development.

The SPS Family Partners’ Day aims to bring together community partners with experience in supporting families impacted by incarceration to network and engage in discourse. Through this platform, partners across the different agencies can collectively be kept abreast of the developments, as well as available resources and support in the field for inmates and their families.

Representatives from SPS, the Ministry of Social and Family Development and community partners shared experiences on engaging inmates and their family through panel discussions, presentations, and breakout room sessions. Three key topics were discussed at the event, namely ‘Working with youth impacted by parental incarceration’, ‘Coping with familial violence’, and ‘Addiction support for families’. In addition, there was an exhibition where participants shared their agencies’ efforts and best practices, and exchanged information on providing support and assistance for the inmates’ families.

Superintendent Ong Choon Yong, Senior Assistant Director from Community Partnership & Family Policy, Rehabilitation & Reintegration Division said, “Inmates, ex-offenders and their family face challenging circumstances. Partnerships with the community are crucial to complement the rehabilitation and reintegration work done by the SPS, to support them on their journey and to improve their circumstances. The SPS Family Partners’ Day is an important platform that brings like-minded community partners together to interact and to learn and share best practices on how to better support inmates and their family.”

Ms Tan Bee Joo, Senior Director of Children’s Outreach from Singapore Children’s Society said, “Singapore Children’s Society has been collaborating with SPS over the past 20 years to provide programmes and services to support children and caregivers affected by parental incarceration. We are thankful for the opportunities to journey with these families in times of their needs and will continue to work with SPS and other partners concertedly to make a difference in the lives of these children and their caregivers.”

Importance of Support for Families of Inmates

While inmates’ families may already be facing challenging circumstances prior to the incarceration of their loved ones, incarceration and the separation of inmates from families can exacerbate the existing issues faced by the families. These issues include loss of income, and challenges in childcare arrangements. It is therefore important to render help to these families as they are the pillars of support for those incarcerated.

Assisting and involving families in the inmates’ rehabilitation journey can also mitigate the risk of intergenerational offending. In 2017, a study by SPS found that about one in every five inmates who were parents, would have a child that had encountered contact with the criminal justice system.

Engagement sessions with Family Service Centres and SPS’s community partners represent a whole-of-community effort to provide timely interventions and assistance to the families and children of the inmates. These efforts will help offenders and their families to break out of the cycle of offending and better prevent re-offending.