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Beyond housing, ex-offenders also have to rebuild social ties and adjust to life outside prison after years of incarceration.<\/p>\n
About one in five inmates released from prison reoffend within two years, according to the latest figures released by SPS.<\/p>\n
The overall two-year recidivism rate for the 2023 release cohort<\/a> was 21.9 per cent, compared to 21.3 per cent the year before.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world inside prisons is easier than outside,\u201d said Cornerstone Community Services executive director Lew Mi Yih, who spent years working in prisons before moving into social service work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond the challenges of reintegrating into society at an older age, former inmates also have to contend with the stigma of having been in prison.<\/p>\n Older ex-offenders also face declining health and reduced independence.<\/p>\n To help Cornerstone Community Services<\/span> volunteers better understand these challenges, they undergo simulations that mimic declining vision, hearing loss, reduced dexterity and even medication sorting.<\/p>\n Ms Lew said the aim is to understand each person’s circumstances rather than assume what help they require.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery elderly wants to (have) their dignity. Dignity is still important to them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Former pastor and prison volunteer Linda Ng said many elderly ex-offenders return to communities where they have few people to rely on.<\/p>\n \u201cSocial isolation is so common,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re like forgotten people, and it\u2019s sad. I really think that we have a role to play.\u201d<\/p>\n SPS\u2019 ASP Ngo hopes that society can treat elderly inmates with more understanding.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThere’s still a bit of stigma, or there’s a bit of fear when you realise that, oh, this person might have abused drugs before, or at first glance, he has a lot of tattoos on his body.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n LIFE OUTSIDE CAN BE HARDER Beyond housing, ex-offenders also have to rebuild social ties and adjust to life outside prison after years of incarceration. About…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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