Psychology Based Correctional Programmes (PCPs)

Singapore Prison Service provides a range of rehabilitation programmes for inmates under our care. These programmes are psychology-based and aims to:

• Motivate inmates to change and
• Work on their negative thinking patterns that led to their offending.

These programmes also provide opportunities for inmates to practice and enhance their ability to communicate with others and manage their emotions, so that they can work towards a life free from drugs and crime.

The development of our psychology-based correctional programmes (PCPs) are guided by:

• Research on the needs of our inmates
• Established rehabilitation frameworks
• Best practices from overseas correctional programmes

Specifically, our programmes are guided by the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model, the Good Lives Model (GLM) and the Desistance Approach. For specific populations such as women and youth, relevant intervention strategies are incorporated in the programmes to meet their unique needs.

• General Offending Programmes
  • Develop skills to solve problems
  • Develop plans to achieve their goals and values to desist from crime
  • Identify and dispute unhelpful thinking patterns that led to their crimes
• Drug Offending Programmes
  • Develop skills to manage their emotions
  • Develop plans to manage their slips and relapses
  • Form new pro-social habits, in replacement of their habit of using drugs
  • Identify and dispute unhelpful thinking patterns that led to their abuse of drugs
• Youth Offending Programmes
  • Build skills to manage conflicts constructively
  • Develop skills to resist anti-social peer influence
  • Explore their values and goals to achieve healthy self-development
  • Identify and dispute unhelpful thinking patterns that led to their misconduct
• Gender-Responsive Programmes
  • Build skills to manage their unhelpful emotions
  • Develop their pro-social identity by encouraging and affirming them
  • Build healthy relationships with significant others to develop their support network
  • Identify and dispute unhelpful thinking patterns that led to their offending behaviours
• Violent Offending Programmes
  • Identify and dispute unhelpful thinking patterns that led them to violence
  • Develop skills to manage their emotions
  • Develop pro-social conflict resolution and communication skills
  • Develop relapse prevention plans for their violent offending
• Sexual Offending Programmes
  • Address issues related to self-esteem, shame and guilt
  • Identify and dispute unhelpful thinking patterns that led them to sexual offending
  • Develop healthy emotional and sexual self-regulation skills
  • Improve problem-solving, interpersonal and relational skills
  • Increase empathy towards victims and others
  • Develop relapse prevention plans for their sexual offending