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Source:
www.mcys.gov.sg |
EXPANDING THE HORIZONS IN THE
REHABILITATION OF YOUTH OFFENDERS |
An Excerpt |
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In his Opening Address, Dr Vivian
Balakrishnan announced the increase of up to 25 per cent in funding for
the 17 social service agencies that are running the Guidance Programme
(GP) - a six-month programme for first-time young offenders to divert
them away from being charged in Court. |
In the programme, participants undergo
counselling, groupwork and other activities aimed at addressing
offending behaviours and imparting life skills. |
The programme also aims to address
participants’ vulnerability towards re-offending. |
Initiated by MCYS in 1997, GP has diverted
about 6,000 young offenders from the juvenile and criminal justice
systems. Among those who completed the programme, only less than 10 per
cent re-offended subsequently. |
In 2004, GP was extended to offenders in the
16 to 19 age group, instead of being limited to juveniles (below 16
years of age). |
Currently, offenders in the 16 to 19 age
group make up about 30 per cent of all GP referrals. In July 2006, a
pilot to extend GP to intellectually disabled offenders was implemented.
The diversity of cases referred to GP has called for a calibrated,
instead of a onesize fits all, approach in addressing the criminogenic
needs of offenders. |
With increased funding, the GP agencies can
develop better capabilities among staff to continue running the
programme. |
In addition, agencies will also be expected
to conduct a risk assessment for each youth assigned in order to better
tailor the intervention programme to suit the needs of individual youth
offenders. |
Please refer to
Annex 6 for a detailed fact sheet on GP, and
Annex 7 for information on selected GP agencies. |
Full Text of Media Release |
Source:
www.mcys.gov.sg Media Release
20 Nov 2007 |
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