Taking bold, innovative initiatives by challenging mindsets and old ways of doing things, Mr Chua Chin Kiat has been instrumental in the transformation of the Singapore Prisons Department.

He challenged assumptions of inmates, rehabilitation and the entire prison's operating philosophy and led his staff in the charting of a new mission for the Singapore Prisons Department. Calling themselves 'Captains of Lives', they have created not only a mission for themselves but also a future for prison inmates.

Mr Chua's vision is for every inmate to have a personal route map to recovery and be integrated with society as a useful citizen. To this end, he was daring, yet realistic in his endeavours. He introduced the Housing Unit Management System, where each inmate is assigned a prison officer as a personal supervisor. Rather than a blanket rehabilitation treatment, he introduced customised rehabilitation for each individual inmate. Through his efforts, the Singapore Prison Service is among the world’s most progressive prison systems with impressive results for their rehabilitation initiatives today.

Synopsis

Mr Chua Chin Kiat took over the Singapore Prison Service in Nov 1999. The prison population then numbered more than 16,000 and increasing. The service could not recruit and retain staff due to the nature of its work as custodian of prisoners. By Oct 2007 when he handed over the rein, the prison population had dropped to 11,700 with a proper rehabilitation framework in place. The staff culture had changed from one of locking people up securely to one of helping prisoners return to society as useful citizens.

The reform journey was outlined in the presentation highlighting the key step of visioning which initiated the change process. The presentation briefly describes how the vision, encapsulated by the tagline "Captains of Lives" was arrived at, and how it was used in strategic planning, leading to the complete overhaul of the prison system.

The public outreach programmes to garner support for the reintegration of prisoners, leading eventually to the Yellow Ribbon Project is also touched upon. At the end of the presentation, 7 leadership lessons gleaned from the experience in prison reformed will be presented.

The presentation concludes with the business excellence awards garnered by the Singapore Prison Service and the drastic drop in recidivism, both of which were evidence of the success of prison reform.