Singapore Prisons Department

As early as 1998, the Singapore Prisons Department began exploring the feasibility of outsourcing some of its functions to private vendors so that its officers could focus on its core competency of rehabilitating prisoners. This paper will examine the reasons and benefits from outsourcing two services in year 2000, namely a) the provision of medical services for inmates and b) the external escort services for low-risk inmates.

2. Apart from these 2 services, the Department has also outsourced the electronic monitoring of prisoners placed on Home Detention in year 2000. Other functions under consideration are the management and custody of immigration offenders, development and delivery of inmate rehabilitation programmes, management of inmates’ property during incarceration, logistics and estate management.

3. The Department first embarked on a conscious review of all its operations to align itself to the vision and mission. It was asked which of the functions could be better performed by private vendors. The evaluation guidelines are:

a. What is the likely public reaction to the outsourcing? Any compelling reason for government to perform function (e.g. confidentiality)?

b. Will the professionalism of the department, public confidence and trust, be maintained?

c. Are there private vendors who are able to perform the function more effectively and efficiently?

d. Is there acute shortage of manpower or expertise, which necessitates the outsourcing?

e. Is outsourcing likely to lead to cost savings, without compromising on safety and security?

f. Is partial outsourcing of a function possible? If so, are there substantial benefits to be gained from doing so?

g. If outsourced, is it possible to ensure (with high degree of certainty) that it will be satisfactorily performed in any event? If not, what are the supervision regime for the private vendor, alternate vendors offering services competitively and contingency plans should the main vendor cease the service.

Feasibility studies were conducted for those functions considered for outsourcing.

4. The contract was awarded to a private medical vendor in Jul 2000. The contract would be reviewed after 5 years.

5. Before Year 2000, due to an acute shortage of public medical officers across the country, medical coverage for all prison institutions (with a total population of 16,000 inmates) was not adequate.

6. Frequent rotation of doctors to other government hospitals also hindered proper follow-up of medical cases. The short posting timeframe provided little exposure and experience for medical officers to acquire the necessary skills for working in the custodial environment.

7. At the same time, public hospitals were also undergoing restructuring. In view of the changing circumstances facing our Department, we decided to explore the outsourcing of medical care as an option.

8. Hospital referrals have been reduced by more than half. This greatly enhances our operation and security, since inmate movement has been reduced and they have lesser opportunities to conduct in illegal activities, such as smuggling contrabands or passing messages.

9. Before outsourcing, sick parade was conducted at the medical centre. This poses a security threat to the institution as large number of inmates from different locations get the opportunity to communicate with one another at the medical centre. After outsourcing, sick parades are now conducted at the housing unit, wherever possible. This reduces inmate movement and greatly enhanced the security of the prison.

10. Before outsourcing, medicines were packed weekly and handed over to prison officers for distribution. Now, medicines are packed in unit doses and handed daily to prison officers for distribution. This enhances compliance and safety, thus reducing error in dispensing of medication.

11. Due to competition, private vendors are able to operate efficiently with lean structures. Through the act of outsourcing, the Department is able to moderate supply according to demand, thus achieving optimal allocation of financial and human resources. In other words, the Department pays only for resources it consumes measured according to the average daily population.

12. There is a greater degree of professionalism perceived by the general public of the Department. This is because the private medical service provider is required to undertake full responsibility and liability for all incidents or complaints of medical malpractice, leading to a greater transparency of our systems.

13. With the provision of better quality medical services, referrals to specialist clinics and hospitals are minimised. This reduces the escort efforts, leaving the Department more resources to concentrate on its core competencies such as security and rehabilitation needs.

14. The external escort of low-risk inmates to hospitals, prison institutions and courts was outsourced to Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation (CISCO)[1] Auxilliary Police Force in July 2000. The CISCO Auxillary Police force is a qualified agency that offers security services to private and government bodies, and has set stringent qualification criteria for their officers assigned to the task. The whole outsourcing effort took 1½ years from conceptualisation to full implementation.

15. Outsourcing low risk escort of prisoners relieves the critical manpower situation in the prisons so that manpower can be channelled to perform the core functions of prison work.

16. Accountability in statutory function is not transferable. Hence, the command and control of the escort function remains under the responsibility of the Singapore Prisons Department. The CISCO staff have to follow the Prisons’ Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the escort of prisoners and take instructions from the Prison authorities.

17. Confirming legal responsibility is important in determining whether CISCO is liable in the event of a breach of requirement by their staff. In this respect, CISCO may resort to invoking internal disciplinary actions against defaulters, training of staff to prevent mistakes from recurring and even looking into management inspection for any breaches of the contractual requirements. CISCO would be liable for any consequences and ramifications as a result of their inability to meet the required standard set by the Department. To evaluate their services, an audit team from the Department was set up to conduct regular checks and to ensure that they meet the set requirements.

18. The outsourcing of escort functions was carried out in stages. This approach enabled the Department to monitor the service standards and performance of CISCO before full outsourcing was granted.

19. The escort of prisoners requires special aptitude and training. Traits such as vigilance and the ability to react promptly in an emergency are extremely crucial. As such, the Department has developed a set of stringent selection criteria for CISCO to comply with in the selection of escort officers. It includes training CISCO officers and their trainers so that they can conduct their own training in the future. The training consists of a 1-month formal training at Prison Staff Training School (PSTS) and a 2 weeks on-the-job training where the CISCO staff will be attached to their prison counterparts to learn the trade.

20. The outsourcing of the escort function to CISCO at the annual cost of $2.8 million is more cost effective than deploying dedicated Prison staff for the function. The annual expenditure incurred in engaging and training 76 prison staff (e.g., salary, training, leave, allowance, etc) to perform the escort function came to about $2.9 million. It does not even include other hidden costs such as management and administration costs.

21. Manpower shortage has always been a perennial problem for the Singapore Prisons Department. This problem has translated into massive accumulations of time-owings (TOs) by our officers who were called in to cover duties. With the outsourcing of escorting of prisoners to CISCO, more prison staff can be released for front line operational duties. Hence, off-duty staff need not be called in frequently to cover absentees on medical leave. A secondary benefit of this will be a general improvement in staff well-being, in terms of physical and social health and family life.

22. More prison staff on the ground will mean an improvement in the staff-to-inmate ratio. Enhanced inmate management comes about as a result of the ability of the Singapore Prisons Department to better implement the Housing Unit Management System[2], which necessarily requires more manpower. The outsourcing enables more prison officers to be deployed to fulfill their core functions.

23. Improved staff-to-inmate ratio at the institutions will lead to improved staff morale. More operational staff on the ground also provide an avenue for staff to consult one another when faced with difficult problems. Freeing staff from mundane duties of escorting of prisoners, to perform the more challenging rehabilitative work can also contribute to greater job satisfaction and hence better retention of staff in the long term.

24. With more staff on the ground, more rehabilitative programmes can be catered to meet the needs of inmates. These programmes will benefit the inmates by keeping them meaningfully occupied and motivated to engage in the change process, thus achieving the overall rehabilitation objective.

LESSONS LEARNT

a. Regular communication and feedback with service provider helps to streamline operations.

b. Regular monitoring is also necessary to ensure compliance with SOPs and performance standards are upheld.

Ideally, the existence of a competitive market should also ensure the best service at the lowest price. However, at this point, it may not be applicable to CISCO as it is the only agency empowered in Singapore to provide armed security services.

Flexibility of Contract

26. One important lesson learnt is that contractual agreements with service providers must be carefully deliberated upon and properly drawn up to avoid unnecessary disputes. Contracts should also be flexible and certain amount of leeway given for changes/amendments.

27. The Department needs to ensure continuous medical coverage for all institutions should the vendor pull out, as medical expertise is not easily replicated. Therefore, contingency contract with another medical service provider should be looked into. It is also important to appoint an expert administrator to administer the contract by carrying out regular audits and supervisions.

Administration of Contract

28. Currently, the outsourced medical service has no audit team checking on its performance, like the External Escort Services. In the interim, a Prison Medical Services Branch was set up to supervise the medical service provider. It comprises one Senior Medical Officer, who is the Medical Administrator, to administer the contract and provides staff support to Director of Prisons.

29. The key motivations to outsource have been resource constraints (in particular, manpower shortage) and a refocus on the department’s core competencies. Although cost savings may not be apparent for most of the outsourced function at this point of time, the benefits of outsourcing remain clear (greater cost consciousness, improved efficiency, and higher quality services). Outsourcing will turn us into a much leaner organisation, which would be easier to manage and can also react faster to change.

[1] CISCO was set up in 1972 to replace Police’s Guard and Escort Unit in providing armed guard and escort services.

[2] This system is based on the model of direct supervision, which has substantive research evidence that such a system works well in providing a more secure and safe method of inmate management.

INTRODUCTION

LESSONS LEARNT

Flexibility of Contract

Administration of Contract