The mobsters of the old days

I am not trying to glorify the criminals,no not at all. They,the prisoners were criminals and serving time in prisons for their crimes. However what I want to say here is,many of them especially in the 1950s,60s and 70s were gangsters with abundant principles.

Today's gangsters in Singapore are bullies,spoilt brats,petty criminals and many with no respect for the ordinary fellow citizens. They killed because of the other party staring at them,raped because their female victims are helpless girls and women.

During the 1960s when I was a prison officer, I somewhat "respected" some of the hardcore inmates. They were gentlemen in their own rights.They honoured their words and sometimes fought for "justice". While under my observation,they did not give me much trouble but if they did they were willing to accept any punishment meted out to them.They considered me as their custodian and not as an enemy. Of course, you'll have to earn their respect too.

The Pulau Senang case whereby the prison superintendent and some of his subordinates were murdered was due to the lack of reverence and respect from the inmates.
It was never easy to earn respect from these inmates. Respect is a two way street.If an officer did not respect his inmates how could it be possible for the inmates to respect him?

My first taste of "prison life". part 1

I was a young man when I joined the Singapore Prison Service. I was paid $190 per month as a Prison Rehabilitation Officer.
The Prisons department posted me to the Reformative Training Center ( RTC) where young offenders were kept.
My training started at the grounds of the main Changi Prison. It was a 3 month stint,learning basic law to using guns and even judo lessons under the Singapore champion Moorthy a senior prison officer.
The Prisons dept. allowed me and other staff to share a house or what we called then the prisons' staff quarters.
I remember paying $10 as rent.
RTC is still standing there today at Jalan Lembah Bedok. I don't know about now but it was 'home' to around 300 inmates.
Some of these young inmates' sentences ranged from 1 year to as many years as the President of Singapore wishes.
The ones sentenced to 'Under The President's Pleasure' were usually young criminals who committed major crimes like murder,kidnappings or crimes that would warrant the death penalty. Yes, they were too young to face the death penalty and so confined under 'TPP' ( The President's Pleasure)

My first taste of 'prison life' part 2

After my 3 months of intensive training, I was then rostered for duty as a full fledged Rehabilitation Officer in uniform.
Before this, I was in civics and did not get much respect from the inmates.
There was once incidence that took place while I was on duty in my civics.
From nowhere, one of the inmates threw a stone at me.When I turned around, all the inmates were laughing at me.I couldn't figure out who was the culprit. Some of them were taunting me.They were testing whether I had the guts to deal with them.This was at the basket ball court and I was the only staff there.
Whatever it was, I told myself, I could not let the situation passed off without me taking any action.
They would have jeered at me and call me an " ah kuah", a term in Hokkien meaning "gay" or crudely put, balless.
I had to act but then who was the culprit? I had to be decisive and showed these thugs that I was not afraid of them.
In a split of a second,I caught hold of the nearest inmate and punched him in his face. Blood poured out from his nose. I did not feel bad because he was one of those who taunted me.
I caught hold of another one and kicked him in his balls. He let out a painful cry and fell on the ground.
By this time, the inmates numbering about 20 stopped taunting and jeering me. They knew I was a no nonsense newbie officer.
From that day onwards, the inmates began to respect me.

"Prison Life" Part 3

We officers,were put on shift duty. First shift was in the morning,second in the afternoon and third was the night shift.
None of the staff was armed. The firearms were kept in the armoury behind the duty officer's office.
If there was a riot or uprising, the duty officer was to unlock the armoury and withdrew the guns and armed the staff.
If there was an attack on the staff by the prisoners which could threatened the lives of the staff, they could open fire.
Most of the staff lived in the quarters (housing) provided.If there was an emergency, all staff including those who were off-duty, were to assemble at the duty officer's office and wait for instructions from the chief officers or superintendant.
An emergency could mean an uprising,riot,attack on staff and escape.
During my tenure of office, there were few cases of emergencies.
I will go into that at a later stage of my posting.

Working in a prison was a challenge for me. I was brought up in a thug infested area of Singapore. I knew what these thugs were like. They could be brutal and cruel and at the same time a code of unwritten underworld rules to follow.
Those stories of petty crimes and bullies were usually committed by the pariah members. The higher ranking and respectable ones were often the "gentleman" mobsters.
The pariahs understood only one thing and that was brute force. The others were more understanding and had principles of their own.
They could sit down and negotiate even with their enemies. They would keep their promises and would not go back on their word. To these people, honour was better than life.
So as you can see,I got a picture and an understanding of their world. This made it easier and also challenging for me to work with them.

Two most notorious prisoners during my time.

The two most notorious prisoners during my time at RTC were "Centipede" and Bak Ho.
The latter was a chief of a group of prisoners belonging to a certain secret society while the former was a fighter. He was nicknamed "Centipede" in Hokkien because of his tatoo of a centipede that ran along his arm.

These two were known to be brave and rough with the other prisoners and they were respected by the inmates. They were quiet and soft spoken and one could not tell they were "somebody" among the inmates.

They also had the respects of the prison officers because of the good behaviour while serving their sentences at RTC.

Strangely when both were released from prison after serving their time,they ran foul of the law again.

"Centipede" kidnapped a manager from a finance company at gunpoint and demanded for ransom. We officers were surprised that he was capable of such a crime.
In an ensuing gun battle with the police,he was shot dead.

Bak Ho was also involved in an armed robbery and shot by the police. He was paralysed from the waist downwards. While serving time in Changi Prison for the armed robbery,he committed suicide at the age of 27.

Story of the most famous Thai prisoner.

This is the story of one prisoner at Samut Prakan Central Prison in Thailand. His name is Panrit Daoruang (previously Nattawud) and he is known by thousands of people around the world as Gor. This prisoner is no ordinary Thai person. Ever since the age of 12, he has been documenting his life on the internationally acclaimed website thailandlife.com. Over the years he became Thailand's most recognized teenager. Newspapers hailed him as Thailand's youngest ambassador. Others said that he had done more to promote Thailand than the government run Tourism Authority of Thailand. His forum for his ThailandGuidebook.com website has over 12,000 members. Gor didn't only promote Thailand culture and tourist attractions to the world. His most popular website at learningthai.com has hundreds of free lessons for learning the Thai language. Everyone agrees that this is the number one site for Thai language learning. The website receives over 6,000 unique visitors every day. That is a lot of people he is helping to learn Thai for free. Now that he is in prison, he hasn't stopped helping foreigners and promoting Thailand to the world. Due to his fluency in English, both foreign prisoners and prison guards often seek him out for help. In his spare time, he has also been writing his autobiography. The first volume was published in May 2007. All of the proceeds from this book are being put into the Educational Fund for his daughter, Nong Grace. She started Kindergarten in May.
Click here for more stories

A Police Officer's Perspective

A Police Officer's Perspective
by Sgt. Buddy Williams, Publisher

He was young when he did it.

On that day in 1981, Robert West had not yet reached his twenty-first birthday so he was more child than man. But, since puberty, a child that had spent more time behind bars than in freedom.

According to investigators he knew his victim. She was young too. Twenty-two year old DeAnn Klaus, who worked as a waitress at the daily rate motel where she and West lived, and where he killed her...click for full story

Prison Life Pt.5: Transformation Of One Of The Ten Most Wanted Men In Singapore

Testimony of Neivelle Tan
(extracted from the book "Meet Neivelle Tan" by Viola Phillips, Anderson, Indiana, U.S.A.)
Neivelle's brush with the law began when he was just fourteen. He became involved with gangland activities after his release from prison at the age of sixteen. By the time he was seventeen he had become one of the top gang leaders in Singapore. At seventeen and half he was involved in a major gang war which resulted in the death of an opposing gang member. He was sentenced to hang for his involvement in the gang murder. To continue click here

Prison Life Pt. 4

Date: 2007-01-11, 3:33AM SGTI just want to say a few things about the "reformative training center" better known as RTC. First and foremost, this is coming from an ex-inmate.(just so you know that I'm talking facts and not fiction). I don't think it works and it never will. "Reformative" for me is derived from words such as reform, remold, made-new, etc. As the old saying goes, "you do the crime, you do the time". I can live with that. You see when you get sentenced to "RTC" you are first put in a seperate cell block away from tha general population. Here is where I was introduced to the guards fist and insults, day in and day out. I know it's not some holiday camp that I'm in, but grab a brain! Try insulting your kids or punching them in the stomach as a form of disciplining and lets see the effects. I'm now in my mid 30's and those guards must be somewhere in their 50's. I'll never forget their faces as long as I live. What goes around comes around. Watch your backs you self-righteous, pieces of shit!!!! serpent3911
Location: once upon in RTC
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interestsPosting ID: 260555579"

Author:

I took this article from the Internet. It was posted by an ex- RTC inmate who looked like one not believing in the reform system.
Read on and post some comments please.

"Prison me no way"

Staged reconstruction of a judicial caning in a Singapore Prison.This video "Prison me no way" was made and shown to discourage our young from getting involved in crimes.