A Meaningful Role

When these Singapore Prison Service scholars became prison officers, they knew their mission extended beyond security – it was about rehabilitation, reintegration and helping ex-offenders reconnect with their families. Here are two of their stories.

- 

That powerful moment of reconciliation – mother and daughter hugging – would stay with Superintendent of Prisons (Supt) Long Ying Ying forever. Their relationship had been anything but smooth.

Gina (not her real name), just 18 at the time, had been sentenced to reformative training for her offences. Her mother, housed in a separate wing of the women’s prison, carried her own weight of mistakes. Before this moment, Gina’s words reflected deep hurt and unresolved emotions.

“She used to say things like: ‘If I see my mum in prison, I’m going to hit her’,” recalls Supt Ying Ying. Gina resented her mother, who had been in and out of prison multiple times, for letting her fend for herself since she was a child.

This was one of the cases Supt Ying Ying was assigned to work on during her first posting with the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) from 2012 to 2014. At the time, she was a housing unit officer (now known as senior correctional unit officer) fresh out of the nine-month training for new SPS officers.

Supt Ying Ying was also given the opportunity to work at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Headquarters. During her three-year posting at MHA’s investigation and enforcement policy unit, she developed policies to support victims of domestic violence.

As a Local Merit Scholarship recipient under the MHA Uniformed Scholarship (SPS) scheme, Supt Ying Ying benefited from an early leadership training that pushed her out of her comfort zone to trek the mountains of Nepal.

More recently in 2023, Supt Ying Ying earned a master’s in applied positive psychology from the University of Melbourne that was funded by the MHA Postgraduate Scholarship, as part of the personal and professional development opportunities for MHA officers.

At SPS today, she serves as senior assistant director (corporate communications and relations).