PART 8
GENERAL
Protection from personal liability
81.  No liability shall lie personally against a prison officer or an auxiliary police officer who, acting in good faith and with reasonable care, does or omits to do anything in the execution or purported execution of this Act.
[Act 6 of 2022 wef 02/09/2022]
Power to obtain information
81A.—(1)  A prison officer of or above the rank of sergeant may, for the purpose of assisting the Commissioner or Superintendent in making any inquiry under section 50X, 56, 57, 59E, 59F, 59O, 59P, 70 or 71 (as the case may be), by written notice require any person to provide, within a reasonable period specified in the notice, and in such form and manner as may be specified in the notice, all documents and information which —
(a)relate to any matter specified by the prison officer; and
(b)are —
(i)within the knowledge of that person; or
(ii)in the custody or under the control of that person.
(2)  The power to require a person to provide any document or information under subsection (1) includes the power —
(a)to require that person to provide an explanation of the document or information;
(b)if the document or information is not provided, to require that person to state, to the best of the knowledge and belief of that person, where it is; and
(c)if the information is recorded otherwise than in legible form, to require the information to be authenticated and made available to the prison officer concerned in legible form.
(3)  The prison officer is entitled without payment to keep for the purposes of the inquiry mentioned in subsection (1) any document or information, or any copy or extract thereof, provided to him or her under that subsection.
(4)  A person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to do anything required of the person by a notice under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,500.
(5)  To avoid doubt, for the purposes of subsection (4), it is a reasonable excuse for a person to refuse or fail to provide any information, produce any document or answer any question if doing so might tend to incriminate that person.
(6)  In this section, “document” means anything in which information of any description is recorded.
[Act 6 of 2022 wef 02/09/2022]
Minister may amend Schedules
82.—(1)  The Minister may, by order in the Gazette, amend the First or Second Schedule.
[1/2014]
(2)  An order made under this section may contain any saving and transitional provisions that are necessary or expedient for the purposes of the order.
[1/2014]
(3)  All orders made under this section must be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication in the Gazette.
[1/2014]
Trial of offences
83.—(1)  Except where by this Act it is otherwise expressly provided, all offences under this Act are triable by a District Court or a Magistrate’s Court.
(2)  Subject to subsection (3), any District Court or Magistrate’s Court has, despite any provision to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, the jurisdiction to try any offence under this Act and to impose the full punishment in respect of the offence.
[1/2014]
(3)  Any District Court or Magistrate’s Court has, if it has jurisdiction under the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 to try an offence alleged to have been committed in breach of the basic condition of a remission order specified under section 50S, the power to impose the full enhanced sentence under section 50T for that offence, despite any provision to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code 2010.
[1/2014]
Regulations
84.—(1)  The Minister may make all regulations that are necessary for the good management and government of prisons and reformative training centres or for carrying out the objects of this Act.
(2)  In particular and without limiting subsection (1), the regulations may prescribe for all or any of the following purposes or matters:
(a)the conditions of service and the powers, conduct and duties of the officers of prisons;
(b)the medical examination, measuring, photographing and taking of fingerprint impressions or other records of persons confined in any prison or otherwise detained in custody, including detailed personal statistics and histories, and for requiring full and truthful answers to all questions put to such persons with the object of obtaining such statistics and histories;
(c)the persons (if any) to whom such measurements, photographs, fingerprint impressions or other records are to be sent or supplied;
(d)the employment, diets, classification, safe custody, separation, treatment and discipline of prisoners;
(e)the kind of labour to be exacted at the different stages of their imprisonment with the manner and place of exacting the same;
(f)the granting, despite anything to the contrary in any law, of remission in respect of sentences of imprisonment and imprisonment in default of payment of fine to prisoners who duly comply with the regulations that apply to them and with the conditions on which such remissions are to be made;
(g)the disposal of the products of the labour of prisoners;
(h)the establishment of prisoners aid associations and societies and for the subsidising of their work and the utilising of their services in connection with prisoners discharged on probation and convicted prisoners whose sentences have expired;
(i)the supply of money, food, clothing or means of travelling to prisoners on their discharge;
(j)the early discharge of prisoners who become entitled to release on a date which falls on a Sunday or public holiday;
(k)the release of prisoners on remission orders or on external placement orders and the due administration of such orders;
(l)the classification of breaches of the mandatory aftercare conditions of remission orders to be serious breaches and minor breaches;
(la)without affecting paragraph (ka), the establishment of an advisory committee for the purpose of advising the Commissioner on the suitability of a prisoner to be released for employment preparation under Part 6B and its constitution, functions and procedures;
[Act 6 of 2022 wef 02/09/2022]
(lb)the release of prisoners on employment preparation orders and the due administration of such orders, including the requirement for such prisoners to retain a proportion of the wages earned by the prisoners as compulsory savings;
[Act 6 of 2022 wef 02/09/2022]
(lc)in relation to the release of prisoners on external placement orders, home detention orders and employment preparation orders, the requirement for such prisoners to bear the costs of any prescribed expenses incurred by them when released on such orders;
[Act 6 of 2022 wef 02/09/2022]
(m)the proceedings and visits of the Visiting Justices;
(n)the establishment of committees, however named, of an advisory nature, for the purposes of this Act;
(o)without limiting paragraph (n), the establishment of an advisory committee for the purpose of advising the Commissioner on the suitability of a prisoner to be released for home detention under Part 6 and its constitution, functions and procedures;
(p)any other matter which under this Act is required or permitted to be prescribed.
[9/2003; 33/2004; 30/2008; 1/2014]
(3)  All regulations made under this section must be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication in the Gazette.
(4)  Where any regulations are presented to Parliament under subsection (3), if —
(a)notice of a motion is given for a sitting day of Parliament before the first available sitting day after 3 months from the date when the regulations are so presented; and
(b)a resolution is passed pursuant to the motion to annul the regulations or any part of the regulations from a specified date,
the regulations or such part of the regulations (as the case may be) become void from that date, but without affecting the validity of anything previously done thereunder, or the making of new regulations.