Misuse of Drugs (Approved Institutions) (Discipline) Regulations

Misuse of Drugs Act

(Chapter 185, Section 44)

Rg 5

G.N. No. S 137/1979

REVISED EDITION 1999

(1st July 1999)

[29th June 1979]

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Misuse of Drugs (Approved Institutions) (Discipline) Regulations.

Definitions

2. In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires —

“centre” means any approved institution as defined in the Act;

“Committee” means an Institutional Discipline Advisory Committee appointed by the Minister under regulation 2C;

[S 454/2008 wef 15/09/2008]

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

[Deleted by S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

“inmate” means any drug addict or abuser who is detained in a centre;

“medical officer” means a registered medical practitioner who is for the time being appointed by the Commissioner of Prisons to perform the functions of a medical officer under these Regulations;

[S 406/2003 wef 26/08/2003]

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

“member”, in relation to a Committee, includes the chairman or deputy chairman of the Committee;

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

“officer” means any rehabilitation or custodial officer of a centre and includes the Superintendent of that centre;

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

“probation officer” means a person appointed as a probation officer or volunteer probation officer under section 3 of the Probation of Offenders Act 1951;

[S 484/2024 wef 31/12/2021]

“supervision officer” means any person appointed by the Minister under regulation 15(1) of the Misuse of Drugs (Approved Institutions and Treatment and Rehabilitation) Regulations (Rg 3);

“visitor” means a member of the Board of Visitors appointed under regulation 3 of the Misuse of Drugs (Board of Visitors for Approved Institutions) Regulations (Rg 4), and includes any other person authorised by the Minister or the Commissioner of Prisons to visit a centre.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Institutional Discipline Advisory Committee

2A.—(1) There may be an Institutional Discipline Advisory Committee for one or more centres, or more than one Institutional Discipline Advisory Committees for one centre.

(2) The function of any Institutional Discipline Advisory Committee is to render an opinion to the Commissioner of Prisons on whether any corporal punishment that a Superintendent of a centre has ordered to be imposed on an inmate is excessive.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Constitution of Committee

2B. Every Committee is to consist of —

(a)	a chairman;
(b)	a deputy chairman; and
(c)	between one and 5 other members. [S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Appointment of member of Committee

2C.—(1) The Minister is to appoint the members of a Committee.

(2) A member of a Committee is to hold office for 3 years or such shorter period as the Minister may specify in any particular case.

(3) A member of a Committee is eligible for re-appointment.

(4) A member of a Committee may at any time resign office by notice in writing to the Minister.

(5) The Minister may at any time revoke the appointment of any member of a Committee, or fill any vacancy in the membership of any Committee.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Secretary of Committee

2D.—(1) One or more public officers may be designated, either by name or by office, by the Minister or Commissioner of Prisons, to be the secretary of a Committee.

[S 62/2024 wef 01/02/2024]

(2) The secretary must attend all meetings of the Committee.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Quorum

2E.—(1) The quorum for a meeting of a Committee is to be constituted by —

(a)	the presiding member of the Committee; and
(b)	any 2 other members of the Committee.

(2) The chairman of a Committee is to preside at every meeting of the Committee at which he is present, and in his absence, the deputy chairman, if present at the meeting, is to preside.

(3) If both the chairman and deputy chairman of a Committee are absent at a meeting, the remaining members of the Committee must elect one such member to preside at the meeting of the Committee.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Proceedings of Institutional Discipline Advisory Committee

2F.—(1) A Committee —

(a)	is to sit in private;
(b)	is not required to meet in person;
(c)	may hold meetings, or allow its members to take part in meetings, by using the telephone, any Internet-based communication device or any other contemporaneous link between members;
(d)	is not required to conduct any hearing;
(e)	is not required to interview any inmate or person in respect of whom the opinion of the Committee is sought, or any other person; and
(f)	may request from the Commissioner of Prisons such information, relating to any inmate or person in respect of whom the opinion of the Committee is sought, as the Committee may require.

(2) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (1) or by or under the Act, a Committee may determine its own procedure.

(3) Every opinion of a Committee is secret and must not be disclosed to any person other than to an officer or a member of the Government who is authorised by the Minister or the Commissioner of Prisons to prepare, see or comment on the opinion.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Opinion of Committee how rendered

2G.—(1) All questions for the opinion of a Committee must be decided by a majority of votes of the members of the Committee.

(2) If there is an equality of votes, the presiding member has a casting vote.

(3) The opinion of a Committee may be accompanied by the dissenting view of any member of the Committee who voted against that opinion.

(4) A member of the Committee who takes part in a meeting of the Committee in the manner referred to in regulation 2F(1)(c) shall be taken to be present at that meeting.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Guidelines

2H.—(1) The Minister or the Commissioner of Prisons may, from time to time, give a Committee appointed to render an opinion to the Commissioner of Prisons, guidelines on the discharge of the Committee’s functions.

(2) The Commissioner of Prisons shall not give any guidelines under paragraph (1) that are contrary to any guidelines given by the Minister under that paragraph.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Duties of inmates

3.—(1) An inmate of a centre shall work in such workshop or do such work as may be assigned to him by the Superintendent of the centre.

(2) An inmate shall keep his bedding, personal effects and all the surrounding areas and the toilets of his living quarters clean and tidy.

Enforcement of discipline

4. Every officer shall treat every inmate justly and firmly in the enforcement of discipline.

Use of force

5.—(1) Every officer may use reasonable force against any inmate who —

(a)	is escaping or attempting to escape from a centre;
(b)	is engaged in a mutiny or an outbreak by himself or with other inmates;
(c)	attacks the officer or any other person; or
(d)	without any reasonable excuse, repeatedly refuses to obey a lawful order given by the officer.

(2) Where force is used against an inmate under paragraph (1), the inmate shall be examined by a medical officer as soon as possible.

Discipline of inmates outside centre

6. Every person, while being taken to or from any centre to which he has been lawfully committed under the Act or while working outside the centre, or is otherwise beyond the premises thereof, in or under the lawful charge or control of an officer, shall be subject to the same discipline and to the same constraints as if he were within the centre.

Punishments for minor offences

7. An inmate of a centre who contravenes or fails to comply with regulation 3 or commits any of the minor offences set out in Part I of the Schedule shall be liable, in addition to or in lieu of any other punishment which may be imposed under the Act or any other written law, to any one or more of the following punishments to be imposed by the Superintendent of the centre:

(a)	deprivation of not more than 2 visits by relatives and friends of the inmate;
(b)	deprivation of the privilege to use or patronise the centre’s canteen for a period not exceeding one month;
(ba)	confinement in a punishment cell for a period not exceeding 7 days; [S 484/2024 wef 01/06/2024]
(c)	stoppage or reduction of earnings for a period not exceeding one month;
(d)	a written warning. [S 484/2024 wef 01/06/2024]

Punishments for major offences

8. An inmate of a centre who commits any of the major offences set out in Part II of the Schedule shall be liable, in addition to or in lieu of any other punishment which may be imposed under the Act or any other written law, to any one or more of the following punishments to be imposed by the Superintendent of the centre:

(a)	deprivation of not more than 4 visits by relatives and friends of the inmate;
(b)	deprivation of the privilege to use or patronise the centre’s canteen for a period not exceeding 2 months;
(c)	confinement in a punishment cell for a period not exceeding 7 days; [S 484/2024 wef 01/06/2024]
(d)	stoppage or reduction of earnings for a period not exceeding 2 months;
(e)	corporal punishment not exceeding 6 strokes with a rattan.

Records of punishments

9.—(1) Any punishment imposed on an inmate under these Regulations shall be recorded in a register.

(2) The number and name of the inmate, the nature of the offence for which the punishment is imposed and such other details thereof as the Commissioner of Prisons may require shall also be recorded in the register.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Commissioner to be informed of offences

10.—(1) Where a Superintendent of a centre has found an inmate guilty of a major offence, the Superintendent must notify the Commissioner of Prisons of the facts of the case, and the punishment imposed on the inmate, not later than 7 days after the imposition of the punishment.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

[S 484/2024 wef 01/06/2024]

(2) The Commissioner of Prisons may amend, alter or vary any punishment imposed by the Superintendent of a centre under these Regulations.

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

(3) In any case where a Superintendent of a centre has ordered that corporal punishment be imposed on an inmate, the Commissioner of Prisons shall refer the case to a Committee for its opinion on whether the punishment imposed on the inmate is excessive.

[S 454/2008 wef 15/09/2008]

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

(4) The Committee shall render its opinion to the Commissioner of Prisons within such period as the Minister may determine after the case has been referred to the Committee.

[S 454/2008 wef 15/09/2008]

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

(5) The Commissioner of Prisons may, but shall not be required to, have regard to the opinion of the Committee when performing his functions and duties under paragraph (2).

[S 454/2008 wef 15/09/2008]

[S 578/2014 wef 01/09/2014]

Right to be heard

11. No inmate shall be punished under these Regulations until he has had an opportunity of hearing the charge and the evidence against him and of making his defence.

Corporal punishment

12. Corporal punishment shall not be imposed under these Regulations on —

(a)	women;
(b)	males who are above 50 years of age; or
(c)	any inmate unless a medical officer is present and certifies that the inmate is in a fit state of health to undergo such punishment.

Offences

13.—(1) Any person who, without the authority of the Act, these Regulations or the express permission of the Commissioner of Prisons —

(a)

conveys or supplies, or causes to be conveyed or supplied, to any inmate, or hides or places for the use of any inmate, any unauthorised article;

(b)

brings, or attempts by any means to introduce, into any centre, or places, or attempts to place, where inmates work, any unauthorised article;

(c)

brings, or attempts to bring, out of any centre, or conveys from any inmate, any unauthorised article;

(d)

makes any audio or visual recording in a centre;

(e)

communicates with any inmate in circumstances where the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, that the communication is likely to encourage, incite or agitate any inmate to commit an offence (including any offence listed in the Schedule), and thereby encourages, incites or agitates an inmate to commit an offence (including any offence listed in the Schedule); or

(f)

does any act, or omits to do any act, which the person is required by law to do, which the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, is likely to have any of the following effects, and which does have that effect:

(i)	prejudicing the safe custody of inmates, the safety of any person in a centre, or the security of a centre;
(ii)	prejudicing the maintenance of good order and discipline in a centre,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

(2) Every officer of a centre who, without the authority of the Act, these Regulations or the express permission of the Commissioner of Prisons —

(a)

knowingly suffers any unauthorised article to be sold to or on behalf of, or to be received or used by or on behalf of, any inmate;

(b)

lends or gives to any inmate any unauthorised article;

(c)

knowingly suffers any unauthorised article to be brought out of any centre, or to be conveyed from any inmate;

(d)

knowingly suffers the making of any audio or visual recording in a centre; or

(e)

knowingly suffers any act or omission which he or she knows, or ought reasonably to know, is likely to have any of the following effects, and which does have such effect:

(i)	prejudicing the safe custody of inmates, the safety of any person in a centre, or the security of a centre;
(ii)	prejudicing the maintenance of good order and discipline in a centre,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

(3) In this regulation, “unauthorised article” means —

(a)	any letter or document;
(b)	any electronic storage device;
(c)	any intoxicating substance, controlled drug, psychoactive substance or stimulant;
(d)	any food or drink;
(e)	any item of clothing;
(f)	money; or
(g)	any article not specifically authorised by the Commissioner of Prisons to be brought into or out of a centre. [S 484/2024 wef 01/06/2024]

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