How Tough Is Singapore Prison Life? | Inside Maximum Security - Part 1/4 | CNA Documentary

okay rubble take note can start things [Music] [Music] to reach professional standard i need to join a lot of competitions 2009 to 2011 that's why i started to get recognized in overseas so from 2011 till 2014 i managed to get skateboarding sponsorship from local and overseas usually for a skateboarding shoe we must have the right sole much more flat than this then it's not slippery for exercise i don't think it's helpful outside you can smell like you know the bus filled the grass the trees cigarette smell yeah perfumes prison uni can smell like walls the last competition i had before proving roughly around 2018 or 2019 and then curved weight started to happen so there was no competition at all i was in a relationship i didn't have a girlfriend i argue with my girlfriend i didn't mean to hurt her it's just my mistake i grabbed her march 2020 that way i started my sentence it's a one-man cell and you're all alone in the cell that loneliness when you can't express yourself when you need to talk to someone you're stuck i feel like i'm a bad person man i think i make a lot of mistakes i have to accept well this is my punishment b1 is a maximum security institution and he also houses inmates with very long sentences inmates who are receiving violent intervention programs i'm bad we do not want any unnecessary conflicts so that's also one of the reason why we house them in singaporean cell our prisons have to be spartan but not affront to human dignity it is as you can see bare it is simple but at the same time prison's conditions has to facilitate rehabilitation five zero seven five zero seven yeah so this is basically where i'm staying up this is my homework uh usually this is my area of sleeping usually i don't wear clothes or not because inside this cell is very important [Music] usually like 4am 5am i wake up already so we have nothing to do because it's very dark so we try to go back to sleep [Music] once the light on then i will go to our washroom over here [Music] so once we bathe i brush teeth then i will come back to this area again to read my bible [Music] after reading i will walk around this sound from here to here or subway from left to the right [Music] and when i'm boring i actually count on by my feet is about seven the weave is five 7 to 7 15 we have started with a mindfulness practice so there is a music in play [Music] attention to all issue inmates stand by for the morning master check i repeat standby for the morning master check you are required to stand up with your t-shirt tap in and greet your officer okay master okay good morning good morning master check is a process where we account for the inmates hit count in our prisons so let's say for example if i have a 150 inmates in my house unit i must make sure i have 150 head counts accounted for sir good morning not just seeing them i also need to make sure that they're responding get his acknowledgement as well good morning to make sure that he's not feeling uh unwell or anything okay bravo total present four one four one [Music] so once master check about like 30 minutes then our full latch will open [Music] yeah usually this is very important to us because it's our first view of the dayla from long lockout from yesterday night before the breakfast the shaver will be issued and they will shave inside the cell [Music] after 10 minutes we'll collect back the shaver around 7 45 so our attendance will issue breakfast to them so our breakfast usually consists of four pieces of bread so they will pass it to our full age then we will take our mug so put it here once we give our delegation tea or coffee and we will bring [Music] i'll finish my breakfast everything i will walk again this is the central kitchen giving meals for the entire class to be per day we have over two meals lunch at dinner approximately about seven to eight thousand meals prepared for prison officers volunteers and inmates in this kitchen the meals are prepared by imitation workers staff yo roman can close door tent close door then open door 11. [Music] okay here is a preparing the vegetables for tomorrow's lunch and tomorrow's dinner people might wonder if it's safe for inmates to use this type of tools in this workshop but as you can see the tools here they are chained when they come to the kitchen right we'll monitor their attitude and performance and we'll see who's suitable for which location so like veggie cutting area requires a lot of cutting and grinding so we need inmates here with the correct composure and correct mind to perform this style task okay what's okay they protect the frame okay now you can have it there will be chefs from the singapore airport terminal services in short sets will be here to educate and guide the inmates on how to prepare the meals [Music] the kitchen caters for six to eight different diets approved based on the dietation recommendation we have normal non-meat soft diet which means means diet of chili for people who can't take spicy food low purine for people who can't take things like tofu and low sugar for inmates who have diabetes the kitchens will ensure that the daily protein and vegetable nutrition requirement is catered for for the inmates every day they have different types of food flaxseed for monday they have baked chicken for tuesday they will have fish food production is done on an industrial scale the inmates are the one preparing the meals ensuring that the inmates right they get the proper amount of food the food after is being packed is placed in these food trolleys these food trolleys will ensure the food is kept warm until it reaches the inmates ready so wednesday afternoon usually we eat uh me or bihoon so today is mingo ring uh this one is like totally uh it give point zero to ten i would say maybe maybe zero because it's very cold and sometimes the me also hardened already when i was doing those illegal stuff was money i do bring my kids up because they love restaurants the western food mostly every day i eat restaurants so compared to the food nowadays like totally one heaven and one health usually after eating i still feel hungry for it to me it's not enough for lunch usually we don't have meat dinner time we have two breasts chicken or fish over the years i really start to adapt the food but eventually i still miss the food outside the way we being served or what is like being treated as pet in the cage for me it's definitely hard lah today i left with 50 days to go i've collected all these items so that i can reward myself every single night for my countdown [Music] [Music] [Music] b1 is one of the maximum security presence we hold about 500 plus inmates here are bravo can grammy a day room one slider the cells that we have here in b1 is special in a way that it's all single man cell in other places you have treatment cell performance cell and eight man cells [Music] over here you see the image cell door all right it consists of three key items over here which is the viewing panel and we have two apertures one on top and one below there's this portion where which is perforated so from here we can hear and talk to the image inside it is not encouraged to talk through the aperture because you know we do not know what they have up their sleeve they can throw things or they can grab all your items nearby the aperture all right so the poster you see over here is basically the cell layout which the images have to follow they are given a set of items inside the cell so when it's time for master check they have to arrange the items according to the poster which is given over here [Music] [Music] the image will be given a clear pill a soapbox a mark with a cover all right uh it's uh transparent so that stuff can see what what they are hiding inside they are given a plastic spoon right for them to use when they eat their meal and we have a set of toothbrush and toothpaste the toothpaste is made in a way that it's clear and you can see things inside if they were to hide anything inside it will be visible for stuff to see [Music] and if you see the tooth brush over here it is made in a way that it's very short because if they were to use this as a weapon i would say pretty much it won't cause much damage compared to a longer toothbrush each rematch will also get two blankets big enough to cover the whole body last but not least we have the straw mat for them to lay out and sleep on the hard ground if they want it to be more cushioned and they will just fold the blanket in a way and make it like a mattress this is the toilet area where the inmate go to the toilet and also take a shower so the cctv will capture everything inside the cell including the toilet area as well so if they go to the toilet to know to do their business or they will if they were to take a shower we can see everything at night the cctvs that is inside the cell are equipped in a way that they can see in the dark this is a one-man cell setting it can be psychologically small in a way if you are cooked up here for a very long time for the weekend is really a very big impact very very big impact for 48 hours knowingly knowing that your perimeter is only this much it really disturbs the mind and the body as well [Music] [Laughter] my wax my moisturizer my my lip pump my lotion these are all the things that i don't have fear [Music] before i came back i was a fitness trainer i was living a high life a luxurious life people wanting to get a car to get a bike to get a house to get every single thing i managed to get it all done before even i hit 30. for this time my sentence i i was quite transparent to istana during that time now i was in a high in drugs i just tend to follow my thoughts and i like to go to places that are eventually uh interesting or unique when i was being called i have a drug utensil with me jason i was led to the drug consumption i was sentenced to three years imprisonment for drug consumption and performance for drug utensil position okay the blankets is the most uh for me important one because the blanket can change to become filo then we have plastic spoon usually i think you guys use only once all right then through yes this thing is like one year plus with me one new plus yeah this one christmas made from china yeah totally this one i don't know why they give us i think maybe budgeting but it doesn't give any effect yeah certainly seriously so because i know so i this thing is the not the normal soul so this one is quite good better than the normal software normal soap one is too dry way to dry center soap is one of those things that motivate inmates to maintain their condition behavior in prison so that they can actually go for work soon so once you go to work then we actually give an allowance then you'll be able to purchase canteen items like a soap so i got these goodies from the allowance that i had working as a field facilitator [Music] today i left with 50 days to go until my release date on the 21st january i have collected all these items so that i can reward myself every single night for my countdown by having some rewards and achieving this rewards by myself i'm able to eventually make myself think better during my docker's time here basically i'm worried i forget i need to focus on the risk of me getting into trouble fighting arguing and disobeying officers can be extension of three days to seven days for my release date tonight i'm gonna treat myself with biscuit this whiskey he is very good in meat but doesn't mean all the good inmates are good citizen we have a lot of experience where the inmate will be but after two months they come back they fail to become a good citizen he's a very good inmate but what we are focusing now is we want him to become a good citizen so that's our next challenge that we need to prepare him before we release standby for sausage every time when i hear my turn for touches i feel very chill now you're not allowed to do all this insider yes [Music] [Music] went to charlie message over here solid to mr ben send your message over to charlie prepare for the room one cell search it's a little mr ben roger proceeding okay we're gonna conduct a routine cell search from five zero seven to five eleven okay booking standby for sales search this is part of the prison's regulations that we need to do the cell search to make sure that they don't keep any contrabands contrabands can include excessive items or any items which are modified such as a cell hook strings okay bravo can run 507 cell search we want to make sure that the environment is actually safe for the inmates and officers to work in so every day we have a scheduled about sales to search okay take out your box every time when i hear my turn for sources uh i feel very sick now yeah bunking before i go in you got anything to declare no sir also will come with cashew on so this is basically where i live at this is my home so after the celsius i have to actually reclaim the wholesaler so normally the images would like to keep things in any part of the norfolk sheila usually the holes over here right they will use um stippler bullets or you can even put straws to use as hooks to hang things then usually they'll have a long piece of string and then you just pull round and round and round and round just to conceal it so this string they will use to do some threading to the eyebrows or to the facial hair if called contraband in the cell a report is submitted against them and they may actually lose opportunity in terms of the work program or even have their our cell activity activity forfeited when it comes to the toilet area this is where it gets more exciting like over here you see an improvised hook which is not allowed each cells they are allowed to have three cell hooks okay two at the living area and one at the toilet so this is an extra one i will certainly ask the image to remove this and pass it to me and i will give them a warning we have a standard cell items for inmates if emails are allowed to have their own items then it actually makes our office's job more difficult to to check and then secondly it's also more on enforcing equality among the inmates we need to make sure that everyone is the same treated the same [Music] the reason why i knock is to see whether there's anything that falls in or out so these are the buttons for the flush in the shower usually we just press the flush button first to see whether they are hiding anything at the toilet room they normally will hide things right under the pipe over here so we will just use the flush button to flush it all down in case they will know what they are you'll be hiding so in my experience when we do cell search we check the toilet bowl because sometimes we can find inmates hide things inside there things like medication peels tablets even improvised items that they wish to hide okay booking can come in with your ego box chances are they are they are smuggling among each other passing around without the stuff knowing they could get from any place that you can imagine but this is all not within the radar of the staff that is why it's very important for us to do cell searches every day regularly this one is origami looks nice now but you're not allowed to do all this inside huh for origamis and other artwork that emails like to create right they are not part of the standardized items and it's also part of image discipline inside prison so that's why it's not allowed let's say if i may were to keep a long piece of string that turned into a rope you can use it to you know hang themselves if there are things that are sharpened that could also be a risk to us when we work over here luckily for the inmate earlier uh there were no major contrabands that were found it's just a rubbish and a few improvised items that doesn't implicate security inside our housing unit [Music] uh with some straws and actually the additional huga is actually improvised like food so basically inside we use rice to make a glue to actually roll out the paper so after it dry it become hard make sure the five huh for the sauce is actually for counselling cost we have this every belief we have good performance they will actually give us package drinks up so the show is actually where it comes from i just feel that the hope for color is like not enough because usually i hang tower to dry out and when i actually go in for bar i also have to take out my pants so usually i will find something to hook on that's where i do the additional hook after all this being confiscated i think i have to re-adapt again to use enough method in the right way okay so far all the other things that i find here are all rubbish and all the things that you're not supposed to keep fish straws improvised cell hooks all these are give you warning okay if you ever do this again the punishment will be higher okay [Music] okay we're gonna dumping you for the offense that you did inside yourself for having extras sell hooks and all the straws that you kept yeah housing you need informal resolution system it's a platform where we record down the inmates wrongdoings what it does is it takes acknowledgement from emit who have committed some mistake and it gives them like a contract not to do the same mistake within six months if not then they will be uh liable for a higher higher punishment which is a disciplinary charge okay i'm sorry okay so uh in prisons we have minor major charges so for minor charges it's enraged from calling with another inmate uh disobeying officer's instructions or keeping excessive or modified items for image found guilty of minor charges the punishment may range from a written warning confinement in peace punishment cell up to seven days or this release date will be extended for major charges cleaning may be imposed and for serious cases it may also be referred to the police a major charge can range from fighting with other inmates hoarding of medication and even a tattoo in prison bravo game granny five zero nine five i think the hardest part in prison is the controlling maybe if you are outside you can be in control but right now i'm inside here i cannot do anything nothing nothing to declare [Music] is of them do store quite a few to eat later in the night when they're hungry and all that but they should only have two we cannot have them to keep it for too long because it could have pain to get them sick so we have to remove this one because it's been a few days already this one is just his own personal own drawings so i'm also taking this one because it's an unauthorized material there's no chalk there's no official stamp on it so i'll take it away why because it could lead to him writing messages across the housing unit or even across the institution plastic stapler strings and a4 paper all this we can't have in the cell cancer we are definitely not allowed to have because the one we can use it for tattoo although all these things in prison is not allowed but we have our means together one of the possible ways how inmates got their contrabands could be through the housing unit attendants who may put in the contrabands or additional items while they're doing food insurance actually everyone knows that these against the rules bought one in the room bottom there's nothing to do then i just do the tattoo work [Music] if facing the cctv like reading a book to like camouflage some magazine will be thicker we use stapler like those you can found can find on some magazine you have to be round and have to be thicker it's not like normal normal paper stapler close track i need a string because um the swing is too light we will tie to the dependent stapler for you we try to get from the doctor we ask for uh like diarrhea medication they will give us this charcoal we leave it to the the thread will absorb the ease they do not have the proper facilities to do those tattoos so they improvise and i've seen infections their whole hand being swollen that's one of the reasons why we want to curb it the other aspect is inmate subculture a lot of our inmates are affiliated to gangs so usually some of the tattoos that they want to put are gang symbols and that can be problematic and that can affect the good order and discipline of the institutions back then i was a society member so we do this tattoo to show a bit of slowly then to like let people know that we are from this gang hidden very high properly then the official soy is a like fresh wound so they they call me my date of release i've extended for 21 days and four stroke of kin also i think nothing on three different occasions i was carrying three different type of weapons actually the first weapon i got was a samurai solar yeah i plan to go down to this place to meet this guy that i just want to like slash him then i walk over to actually teach him a lesson not to mess with other people's wife the second weapon i carried was a parang i needed because the time i was paranoia people enemies were following me and then my last weapon i carried was a brand knife it's actually a protection for myself again i didn't get to use it but after i got caught when you get killed there's no installment in total i have 21 strokes of the king when you get killed you cannot you can't scream out you can't faint also and you can't appear weak we are in society so um you have to be tougher if you always you can't go you can't take and future other trouble how you're going to face it what i'm setting up over here right now is for basic wound care for the patient after cane contrary to what people normally think they are linear superficial wounds vibrations it won't be profusely bleeding i would consider a minor wound because there's no deep tissue cut they try to walk straight after the cleaning process some do cry some don't some are harder than others if they do request painkillers we will prescribe for them so far i've not seen any made requesting uh yeah i present this stuff for me but my family is out there everything from here what i go through is nothing [Music] [Music] i look forward for your time is because basically we actually do exercise and the space is much more bigger then we can feel more air that is coming in from there [Music] [Applause] we ready [Music] we're doing our usual exercise routine so it's our own so-called hiita high intensive training usually one week we have two hours of yacht there are twice a week up so it's four on tuesday and thursday okay here's the yacht time quite quite long or two hours yeah we will make full user [Applause] [Music] [Applause] when officers are supervising the yacht it can be very daunting you're taking care of a large number of inmates in one confined space the officers are statically trained they will expect the unexpected [Music] guys you all cannot use the bench for exercise huh if they are trying to do the bench press then that will deprive someone from using the table to read their newspaper or play games and besides the bench is also not intended for that purpose so next time i want to see this okay that's how we are showing the not correct way of exercising but really can do like jogging soda push up hit but we can't use any equipment in the yard and let's say the wall the bench everything we cannot use and we cannot cross the red line around the basically we just do exercise smartly so when there's officer we try to just wire a villa we redo something that not allowed that would make us come here so most of us will still do because there's nothing more we can do slowly okay um this is my portfolio [Music] when i was at visual arts hub we can draw visual art hub is a place that we inmates can do like our fine art pottery carpentry party yeah you can do anything to express ourselves [Music] this is the picture of me and my wife i use a pencil meter eraser [Music] photos it's very precious here every month we have 20 points that will be if we not get charged or anything we'll get 20 points so you have to accumulate 60. point for one photo and sixty point it takes about three months to to accumulate yeah so you have to maintain your contact like three months yes to get just 60 points then you can claim for your redeem for your photo my wife was married in 2008 so after that after one year i need to come into prison because of some cases that i've done so during that time my wife was pregnant she's still waiting for me she never leave me my wife didn't miss any visitor only twice because she needed to give birth and bring my eldest daughter for jacob [Music] i use money to to show my love to my wife whatever she wants like those uh render bags all these are just okay let's go we go and get it they provide they are living their house grocery made everything i can feel like some of my wife don't have to work and slowly slowly i start to fall back to drugs slowly yeah everything gone come give me your friends i feel it's a bit like actually quite humiliating uh because on and off i have to sweep for people like those prostitutes uh we are no different if i was found guilty in the corporate we hang by i was petrified i didn't think i'm going to die i even made my own video she wanted to divorce with me i feel it's very unfair [Music] you

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Length: 46min 9sec (2769 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 29 2022