Two-year recidivism rate for drug inmates highest since 2015

Rate for all inmates remains low and stable, says prison service

- Samuel Devaraj

The recidivism rate of local inmates in the various drug rehabilitation centres (DRCs) within two years of release is the highest it has been since 2015.

According to statistics released by the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) on Feb 11, the two-year recidivism rate for DRC inmates from the 2022 release cohort is at 30.8 per cent.

This is higher than the overall rate of 21.3 per cent, which includes all local inmates who were detained, sentenced to jail, or given a day reporting order within two years of their release.

SPS said the overall two-year recidivism rate, which went down from 22 per cent the previous year, remained low and stable.

The statistics show that the overall five-year recidivism rate is on a downward trend, dropping to 36.6 per cent for the 2019 cohort from 36.8 per cent the previous year, while the five-year figure for DRC inmates went down to 43 per cent from 43.6 per cent.

But the DRC two-year figure has gone up for the third straight year and is the highest it has been since 2015, when the recidivism rate for the 2013 release cohort was 31.9 per cent.

The SPS statistics also show that the number of overall drug rehabilitation inmates is the highest it has been since 2008, when SPS statistics were first made public.

As at Dec 31, 2024, there were 4,349 such inmates, comprising those at the two DRCs at Changi Prison Complex's B5 institution and Selarang Park Complex, and female DRC inmates at Institution A4. There were 3,981 DRC inmates in these facilities in 2023.